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CONSISTING  OF   A   SERIES  OF 

DI'NOMINATIONAL   HISTORIES  PUBLISHED  UNDER  THE  AUSPICES  OF 

THE   AMERICAN   SOCIETY  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY 

<0eneraf  (B^ifote 

Rev.  Ph'Lip  Schaff,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.       Bishop  John  F.  Hurst,  D.D.,LL.  D. 
Rt.  Rev.  H.  C.  Potter,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.  Rev.  E.  J.  Wolf,  D.  D. 
Rev.  Gi.o.  P.  Fisher,  D.  D.,  LL.D.      Henry  C.  Vedder,  M.  A. 
Rev.  Samuel  M.  Jackson,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 

Volume  X 


(American  C^urc^  ^ieforg 

A  HISTORY 

OF 

THE   UNITARIANS 


AND 


THE   UNIVERSALISTS 

IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

BY 

JOSEPH   HENRY  ALLEN,  D.  D. 

AND 

RICHARD  EDDY,  D.  D. 


^ 


i^c  C^xxBiian  feitcrdture  Co. 


MDCCCXCIV 


Copyright,  1894, 
Bv  The  Christian  Literature  Company. 


PREFACE. 


The  task  attempted  here  is,  first,  to  give,  within  the 
limits  assigned,  a  history  of  the  reHgious  movement 
known  as  "  Unitarian  "  sufficiently  broad  and  complete 
for  the  general  reader ;  and  second,  to  furnish  a  list  of 
authorities  adequate  for  the  uses  of  the  special  student. 
The  latter  object,  it  is  hoped,  has  been  effected  by  ample 
references  in  the  margin.  A  formal  bibliography,  partic- 
ularly of  individual  lives,  which  are  very  numerous,  might 
be  extended  to  any  length,  and  might  hardly  justify  the 
space  it  would  require.  Besides,  the  value  of  this  sketch, 
such  as  it  is,  depends — in  the  latter  part  especially — on  its 
being  a  record  of  personal  recollections,  judgments,  or 
impressions,  left  by  near  sixty  years  during  which  I  have 
been  a  student  or  observer,  and  more  than  fifty  while  I 
have  been,  in  a  way,  a  laborer,  in  this  field.  In  what  is 
said  of  the  incidents  and  actors  since  the  movement  of 
thought  among  us  commonly  dated  between  1835  and 
1840,  every  name  is  one  I  recall,  gratefully,  as  that  of  a 
teacher,  associate,  or  friend.  Most  of  these  are  passed 
away.  Of  the  living,  only  Furness  and  Martineau  have 
been  included  ;  and  these,  in  their  advanced  and  venerated 
old  age,  already  belong  to  history. 


VI  PREFACE. 

The  record  of  the  last  half-century  is,  accordingly,  that 
of  a  witness,  not  an  annalist.  It  does  not  give  so  full  a 
register  of  events  as  I  wished ;  but  it  aims  to  include  all 
the  data  and  the  personalities  which  are  essential  to  the 
understanding  of  this  period  in  the  denominational  life. 
It  is  supplemented,  from  my  own  point  of  view,  by  a 
more  extended  study,  written  out  during  the  time  of  my 
service  in  the  Harvard  Divinity  School,  and  published 
under  the  title  "  Our  Liberal  Movement  in  Theology  " 
(Boston,  Roberts  Brothers).  In  this  connection  special 
attention  should  be  called  to  Dr.  G.  E.  Ellis's  "  Half- Cent- 
ury of  the  Unitarian  Controversy"  (Boston,  1857),  and 
to  the  biographies  of  Channing,  Parker,  and  Gannett,  by 
W.  H.  Channing,  John  Weiss,  O.  B.  Frothingham,  and 
W.  C.  Gannett.  For  the  remoter  period  I  would  espe- 
cially refer  to  Professor  Bonet-Maury's  "  Early  Sources  " 
(London,  1884),  and  to  articles  in  the  "Theological  Re- 
view "  and  the  "  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,"  by  Rev. 
Alexander  Gordon. 

J.  H.  Allen. 

Cambridge,  Mass., 

January,  1894. 


CONTENTS 


THE    UNITARIANS. 

PACK 

CHAP.  I. — Italian  Reformers. — Waldenses  ;  Anabaptists. — Reform 
in  Italy. — The  Brothers  Valdes. — Valdes  in  Naples. — Circle  of  the 
Reformers. — "  The  Benefit  of  Christ." — Doctrine  of  Good  Works. — 
Ochino. — Queen  Mary's  Prisons. — Ochino's  Later  Life. — Doctrine 
Concerning  Christ i 

CHAP.  II. — Servetus. — The  Reformers  on  Servetus. — Servetus  and 
Melanchthon. — Conferences  at  Augsburg. — Melanchthon's  "  Top- 
ics."— "  De  Trinitatis  Erroribus." — Servetus  in  France. — The 
Pagnini  Bible. — "  Christianismi  Restitutio." — Arrest  and  Trial  of 
Servetus. — His  Martyrdom. — Its  Motive. — The  Doctrine  of  Serve- 
tus.— Estimate  of  Servetus 24 

CHAP.     III. — SociNUS. — Lselius    Socinus. — Faustus    Socinus. — The 

Task   of    Socinus. — The    Situation    in    Switzerland. — The    Name        - 
"  Unitarian." — Socinus  in  Poland. — The  Last  Days  of  Socinus. — 
The  Writings  of  Socinus. — The  Doctrine  of  Socinus  49 

CHAP.  IV. — The  Polish  Brethren. — The  Reformation  in  Poland. 
— Antitrinitarian  Confession  in  Poland. — The  House  of  Jagello. 
— Polish  Diet  of  1573. — Henry  of  Valois. — Socinus  in  Poland. — 
The  Socinians. — The  Jesuit  Policy. — Cossack  Revolt. — Death  or 
Exile  (1658-60). — Last  of  the  Polish  Brethren. — The  "  Racovian 
Catechism  "  73 

CHAP.  V. — Transylvania. — Magyars,  Saxons,  Wallachs. — The  Szek- 
lers. — Reformation  in  Transylvania. — John  Sigismund. — Francis 
David — Edict  of  Religious  Freedom,  1658. — Death  of  John  Sigis- 
mund, 1 571. — David  and  Blandrata. — Political  Changes. — Austrian 
Barbarities. — Bethlen  Gabor  ;  Sabbatarian  Controversy. — Michael 
St.  Abraham.  —  Restoration  of  1791. — The  Present  Situation 97 

CHAP.  VI. — English  Pioneers. — Persecution  in  England. — William 
Chillingvvorth. — Attack  on  Independency. — Cromwell's  "Arti- 
cles."— Baxter's  "  Essentials." — John  Biddle. — Thomas  Firmin. — 
William  Penn. — Toleration  Act. — Bull,  Bury,  Wallis. — Wilham 
Sherlock;    Robert  South. — Locke's   "Reasonableness." — Thomas 

Emlyn. — Last  Acts  of  Intolerance 121 

vii 


viii  CONTENTS   OF   THE    UNITARIANS. 

PAGE 

CHAP.  VII. — Unitarian  Dissent  in  England. — Presbyterian,  In- 
dependent, Baptist. — Theophilus  Undsey. — Lindsey  in  London. — 
The  Earlier  Unitarian  Dissent. — Joseph  Priestley. — Priestley's 
Materialism. — Priestley  in  America. — Thomas  Belsham. — Lant 
Carpenter. — Later  English  Unitarians. — James  Martineau. — The 
Present  Situation 146 

CHAP.  VIII.— Antecedents  in  New  England. — Early  Covenants. 
— Confession  of  1680. — Unitarians  of  the  Eighteenth  Century. — 
Whitefield  and  Chauncy. — The  Mayhews. — Jonathan  INIayhew. — 
Liberals  in  Salem. — William  Bentley. — King's  Chapel,  Boston. 
— Henry  Ware  at  Harvard  College. — John  Sherman. — Abiel  Abbot. 
— The  "  Monthly  Anthology." — John  Lowell. — W.  E.  Channing.  .    170 

CHAP.  IX. — Period  of  Controversy  and  Expansion. — Chan- 
ning's  Baltimore  Sermon. — Channing  Unitarianism. — Lyman 
Beecher  in  Boston. — Representative  Names. — Emerson's  Resigna- 
tion.— Emerson's  Divinity  School  Address. — Norton  and  Ripley. 
— Theodore  Parker. — The  Boston  Association. — The  Berry  Street 
Conference. — Anniversary  Week. — The  Autumnal  Convention. — 
Lack  of  Sectarian  Temper 195 

CHAP.  X. — The  New  Unitarianism. — The  Civil  War:  King,  Eliot, 
Bellows. — The  National  Conference. — James  Freeman  Clarke. — 
Frederic  Henry  Hedge. — Widened  Range  of  Action. — The  Minis- 
ters' Institute. — "  Transcendental  Wild  Oats." — The  Western  Is- 
sue.— Mission  College  in  Japan. — Recent  Necrology. — The  Name 
"  Unitarian." — England  and  the  Continent 221 

Supplementary  Note  :  Letter  from  Dr.  Martineau 247 


THE    UNIVERSA  LISTS. 

Bibliography 253 

CHAP.  I. — From  the  Beginning  to  the  Reformation. — The 
"  Sibylline  Oracles." — Clement  of  Alexandria. — Origen. — Metho- 
dius.— Marcellus. — Gregory  Nyssen. — Diodorus. — Theodore  of 
Mopsuestia. — Theodoret. — Bar  Sudaili. — Maximus  the  Confessor. 
— John  Scotus  Erigena. — Almaric  and  Albert. — Brethren  of  the 

Common  Lot. — John  of  Goch. — Peter  d'Aranda 255 

CHAP.  II. — From  Luther  to  the  Present  Time. — Martin  Luther. 
— The  Anabaptists. — Protestant  England. — William  Postell. — Dr. 
John  Davcnant. — Gerard  Winstanley. — Jeremy  White. — Jane  Lead. 
— The  Viscountess  of  Conway. — Dr.  Thomas  Burnet. — Petersen 
— Ditelmair. — German  Believers. — German  Writings. — Taught  in 
Holland. —  Petitpierre —  Cuppe. — France  —  .Scotland. — The  Cheva- 


CONTENTS.  ix 

PAGE 

lier  Ramsay. — Warhurton's  Divine  Legation. — "  Ilarleian  Miscel- 
lany."— Rev.  William  Law. — Sir  George  Stonehouse. — Henderson 
— Wincliester. — The"  Monthly  Review." — The  "  Critical  Review." 
— Dr.  Crombie. — Rev.  David  Thom. — Rev.  John  Foster. — Towns- 
hend — McDonald. — English  Congregationalists. — Olshausen 306 

CHAP.  IIL — L\  AiMERiCA  Prior  to  or  Lndependent  of  John 
Murray. — Gorton. — Vane. —  Dr.  De  Benneville. —  Germantown 
Settlers. — Episcopalians. — Congregationalists. — Presbyterians  ....    372 

CHAP.  IV. — John  Murray. — Murray's  Theology. — Influence  on  Cal- 
vinism.— Influence  on  Universalists. — Trouble  in  Gloucester. — Ox- 
ford Association. — Mr.  Murray  in  Boston. — An  Effective  Pioneer.   388 

CHAP.  V. — Elhanan  Winchester  and  Caleb  Rich. — Philadel- 
phia Baptists. — Rev.  David  Evans. — Dr.  Benjamin  Rush. — Church 
Government. — Unitarian  Universalism. — Dr.  Joseph  Priestley. — 
Mr.  Winchester's  Theology. — Rev.  Caleb  Rich 408 

CHAP.  VI. — Hosea  Ballou  and  Progress. — Unitarian  Universal- 
ism.— "  The  Winchester  Profession." — "  Plan  of  Association." — 
"  Treatise  on  Atonement." — In  the  States. — State  Organizations.  .    427 

CHAP.  VII. — An  Unfortunate  Division. — Discussion  on  Future 
Punishment. — Unitarian  Attack. — Mr.  Ballou's  Answer. — Change 
of  Editors. — The  Restorationists. — Extreme  Views. — Present  Atti- 
tude        444 

CHAP.  VIII. — Polity — Missions — Historical  Society. — Lack  of 
Uniformity. — Inadequate  Measures. — A  Definite  Polity. — Mission 
to  Japan ■ 461 

CHAP.  IX. — Literatur'e — Hymnology. — Publishing  House. — Con- 
vention Hymn-book. — Hosea  Ballou's  Convention  Hymn. — Hymn- 
books. — Hymn-Writers 471 

CHAP.  X. — Education — Young  People. — Sunday-schools. — Nichols 
Academy. — Academies. — Theological  School. — Colleges. — Conclu- 
sion     482 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH 


UNITARIAN  MOVEMENT  SINCE  THE  REFORMATION, 


JOSEPH    HENRY    ALLEN,    D.D., 

Late  Lecturer  on  Ecclesiastical  History  in  Harvard  University  ;   Honorary 
Member  of  the  Supreme  Consistory  of  Transylvania. 


xi 


THE    UNITARIANS. 

CHAPTER    I. 

ITALIAN    REFORMERS. 

Unitarianism  as  now  held  is  a  late  growth  out  of  the 
general  movement  of  thought  that  brought  about  the 
Protestant  Reformation  and  has  been  working  out  ever 
since.  It  is  wholly  independent  of  the  controversies  or 
the  heresies  which  appeared  during  the  long  process  that 
developed  the  creed  of  Catholic  Christendom.  These  may- 
be regarded  as  having  come  to  an  end  with  the  recantation 
of  the  Adoptian  theory  by  Felix  of  Urgel  in  Catalonia  in 
799.  The  Reformers  of  the  sixteenth  century  came  slowly 
and  reluctantly  into  conflict  with  the  dogmatic  system 
which  for  more  than  a  thousand  years  had  been  accepted 
by  the  general  consent  of  Christians.  "  We  have  no  dif- 
ference with  Rome  on  a  single  point  of  doctrine,"  said 
Melanchthon  at  Augsburg,  in  1530.^  Though  they  had 
assailed  the  logical  method  of  the  Scholastics  and  avoided 
their  doctrinal  terms  and  distinctions  as  long  as  they  could, 
yet,  when  they  came  to  the  formal  defense  of  their  own 
theology,  they  adopted  and  eagerly  maintained  (against 
Servetus,  for  example)  the  very  forms  and  phrases  invented 

^  Dogtua  nullum  Itabcinus  diversum  ab  ccclcsid  romand. — "  Opera,"  ed. 
Bretschneider,  vol.  ii.,  p.  170. 

I 


2  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chai-.  i. 

by  the  medieval  schools  and  thence  grafted  upon  the 
Catholic  creed. 

But  there  had  been  all  along  an  undercurrent  of  hostility 
against  the  doctrine  as  well  as  the  discipline  of  Rome,  and 
the  form  it  took  was  sometimes  very  radical.  One  splen- 
did and  heroic  example  is  that  of  the  Waldenses,  "  Protest- 
ants of  the  Alps,"  known  in  history  as  a  distinct  religious 
body  for  something  more  than  seven  hundred  years,  suffer- 
ing through  most  of  these  years  under  a  persecution  whose 
unrelenting  ferocity  cannot  be  paralleled  elsewhere  in  relig- 
ious history,  without  the  slightest  approach  to  submission 
or  compromise.  Their  own  tradition  connects  their  seces- 
sion from  Rome  with  the  zeal  of  Claudius  {Claude),  the 
reforming  bishop  of  Turin,  a  Spaniard  by  birth,  a  pupil  of 
the  heretic  Felix,  placed  in  the  see  of  Piedmont  by  Louis 
the  Pious,  about  820,  to  contend  there  against  supersti- 
tious practices,  who  showed  such  iconoclastic  vigor  as  to 
call  down  the  censures  of  the  church,  and  to  win  the  ill 
name  of  "Arian."      (Baronius,  Anno  825,  Iviii.) 

If  this  be  so,  Claudius  may  be  taken  as  the  connecting 
link  between  ancient  and  modern  forms  of  Unitarian  belief. 
And  it  is  not  impossible  that  this  earliest  protest  against 
the  autocracy  of  the  Empire  Church  may  have  left  a  line 
of  living  descent  sheltered  among  the  southern  valleys  of  the 
Alps,  and  have  become  part  of  the  celebrated  "  Leonine  " 
tradition  that  runs  back  to  the  days  of  Constantine,  assert- 
ing a  "  gospel  according  to  Paul  "  that  maintained  itself 
there  independent  of  the  hierarchy,  and  emerged  in  the 
general  stir  of  thought  promoted  by  the  Crusades,  when 
first  we  hear  of  the  Albigenses  and  Waldenses.^ 

The  great  and  premature  revolt  of  free  thought  in  the 
twelfth  century — which  led  to  the  formal  adoption  of  the 

1  See  my  "  Christian  History  in  its  Tiirec  Great  Periods,"  vol.  ii.,  pp. 
165-167. 


ANAJyAPTISTS.  3 

policy  of  persecution  in  tlie  Third  Lateran  Council  of  1 179, 
and  later  to  the  twenty  years'  religious  war  in  Languedoc 
— appears,  when  we  look  into  it,  to  have  turned  on  points 
tiiat  came  to  have  a  sinister  prominence  in  the  story  of  the 
Protestant  Reformation,  and  are,  in  fact,  nearly  connected 
with  our  present  topic.  The  heresies  of  that  day  are  stig- 
matized both  as  "Arian  "  '  and  as  "  Manicha;an  " — which 
latter  reproach  they  share  with  Calvinism.  But,  in  partic- 
ular, they  are  agreed  in  rejecting  the  church  dogma  of 
baptismal  regeneration.  Their  religious  life  takes  the  form 
sometimes  of  a  ritual  severely  simple,  sometimes  of  a  moral- 
ity at  once  tender  and  austere,  sometimes  of  an  exaltation 
running  to  Antinomian  excess,  sometimes  of  a  pious  mys- 
ticism that  merges  all  positive  dogma  in  living  experiences 
of  the  soul. 

It  is  perhaps  with  a  little  surprise  that  we  find  in  these 
medieval  heresies  a  family  likeness  connecting  them  with 
certain  radical  sects  that  sprang  up  side  by  side  with  the 
Lutheran  reform,  especially  the  "Anabaptists" — that  is, 
re-baptizcrs,  requiring  the  rite  of  all  new  converts.  These 
have  left  an  ill  name  by  reason  of  the  scandals  and  feroci- 
ties which  some  of  them  ran  into.  But,  again,  we  meet 
them  from  time  to  time  living  peaceably  and  piously,  as  in 
Poland,  in  recognized  religious  communities  ;  or  as  extend- 
ing widely  in  some  Lutheran  countries,  especially  in  north- 
ern Germany.  Their  church  life,  so  far  as  we  discern  it, 
shows  nothing  of  disorder,  but  only  a  greater  independence 
of  tradition  and  dogma  than  that  of  other  Protestant  sects. 

The  germs  of  modern  Unitarianism  as  a  popular  belief 
we  seem  to  find  first  in  these  poor  communities  of  Baptists, 
scattered  and  scorned.      It  was,  as  we  shall  see,  part  of  the 

1  "  In  this  year  [11 76]  was  condemned  the  .\rian  heresy,  which  h.id  infected 
almost  the  entire  province  of  Toulouse." — Uarouius.  (See  a  debate  on  the 
Trinity  in  Mansi,  vol,  xxii.,  p.  71).) 


4  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  i. 

attempt  of  the  younger  Socinus  to  strengthen  them  by  a 
closer-knit  organization  and  a  more  sharply  defined  belief. 
When  some  of  them  emigrated  out  of  Holland  into  Eng- 
land in  the  reign  of  Henry  VHI.,  and  were  burned  alive 
for  their  "Arian  "  heresy  in  1535,  we  come  in  this  pitiful 
tragedy  upon  the  first  historic  traces  of  what  grew  long 
after  into  the  body  of  Unitarian  Dissent.^  Further,  when 
the  persecution  was  renewed  against  them  ten  years  later, 
under  the  boy-king  Edward,  we  find,  as  making  part  of 
the  same  account,  in  the  burning  of  that  poor  pious  en- 
thusiast, Joan  of  Kent,  what  appears  to  have  been  a  crude 
form  of  the  old  Apollinarian  heresy — denial  that  the  human 
body  of  the  Lord  Jesus  was  taken  from  the  substance  of 
his  mother. 

Again,  the  growth  of  the  Unitarian  opinion  was  favored 
by  a  general  freedom  of  speculation  which  made  the  life 
of  the  "  Humanist  "  revival.  Erasmus,  with  elaborate  sar- 
casm, had  brought  into  contempt  the  very  method  and 
nomenclature  of  the  Scholastic  theology.  Naturally,  he 
is  spoken  of  as  "  that  cursed  antitrinitarian  "  by  the  heresy- 
hunters  of  his  day.  Luther  and  Calvin,  in  their  recoil  from 
Catholic  dogma,  long  avoided  the  term  "  trinity,"  and  re- 
fused to  employ  the  Athanasian  Creed  ;  though — the  one 
from  his  ardent  worship  of  the  person  of  Jesus,  and  the 
other  from  the  demand  of  an  infinite  sacrifice  in  the  atone- 
ment— they  abhorred  whatever  implied  any  limit  to  the 
absolute  deity  of  Christ.-  "  Surely,"  writes  Melanchthon, 
"  there  is  no  reason  that  we  should  spend  much  pains  in 
these  high  matters — God,  unity,  trinity,  the  mystery  of 
creation,  or  the  mode  of  incarnation.     What,  pray,  have 

1  Introduction  to  Wallace's  "Antitrinitarian  Biography." 

2  See  the  testimonies  in  Chastel,  "  Histoire  du  Christianisme,"  vol.  iv., 
pp.  380,  381.  The  Genevan  pastors  in  1537  were  (he  says)  charged  by  Caroli 
with  Arianism  and  Sabellianism.     Compare  Calvin,  "  Opera,"  vol.  ix.,  p.  693. 


KEI-'OKiy  IN  ITALY.  5 

the  Scholastic  theolog-ues  gained  in  all  these  centuries  by 
their  handling  of  such  themes?  I  might  easily  overturn 
all  the  arguments  they  allege:  how  many  of  these,  indeed, 
seem  to  make  rather  for  heresy  than  for  the  Catholic  doc- 
trine !  Did  Paul  philosophize  on  the  mystery  of  the  trinity, 
or  the  mode  of  incarnation,  or  active  or  passive  creation?  "  1 
It  was  natural  that  he  too  should  be  charged  (as  we  are 
told  he  was)  with  Arianism,  a  heresy  he  was  afterward  so 
diligent  to  refute.  Zwingli  at  Marburg,  in  1529,  had  first 
of  all  (says  D'Aubigne)  to  deny  humanitarian  ("Jewish") 
views  of  the  nature  of  Christ.  And  ten  years  later,  Me- 
lanchthon  warns  the  Venetian  Senate  of  the  wide  spread 
of  "  Servetianism  "  in  northern  Italy,  employing  against  it 
the  same  metaphysical  arguments  and  distinctions  he  had 
once  disclaimed. 

But  here  we  touch  upon  another,  if  not  quite  independ- 
ent, train  of  antecedents.  The  startfng-point  is  not,  as 
before,  in  the  protest  of  the  German  Reformers,  and  not  in 
the  bosom  of  a  secluded,  obscure,  and  fanatical  sect.  It 
is  at  the  very  heart  of  the  Catholic  Church  itself,  in  the 
interior  circles  of  its  purest  piety  and  its  most  refined  intel- 
ligence. The  movement  we  are  concerned  with  embraces 
minds  that  never  once  thought  of  secession  from  the 
Church  of  Rome ;  they  might  even  hope  that  Rome  would 
yet  join  hands  with  Germany  to  bring  about  a  genuine  re- 
form of  Ciiristendom.  They  announce  no  formal  scheme 
of  doctrine  and  make  no  open  attack  on  the  existing  church 
system  ;  their  hostility  is  shown  simply  by  their  silence  as  to 
the  ritual,  the  discipline,  or  the  dogma  which  that  system 
makes  all-imi)ortant  in  the  religious  life.  The  movement 
they  represent  begins  with  a  very  pure  and  ardent  form  of 
practical  piety,  though  it  runs  out  presently  to  a  phase  of 
opinion  more  frankly  radical  and  rationalistic  than  wc  hnd 

'  "  Loci  Theologici,"  pp.  S,  9  (ed.  of  1521). 


6  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  i. 

elsewhere,  which  marks  the  later  stage  of  the  Reformation 
in  Italy.  This  line  of  development  leads  directly  to  our 
proper  subject ;  and  we  may  here  most  conveniently  follow 
it  through  a  series  of  representative  names.  It  first  appears 
upon  the  stage  of  history  in  the  following  very  dramatic 
way.^ 

When  the  emperor  Charles  V.  came  into  Italy  out  of 
Spain  in  1529  to  attend  the  splendid  ceremonial  of  his 
coronation  at  Bologna^  he  brought  with  him  as  members 
of  his  household  two  twin  brothers,  Alphonso  and  John 
Valdes,  sons  of  a  noble  Spanish  house,  both  accomplished 
scholars  and  men  of  ardent  piety.  The  elder  was  the  em- 
peror's private  secretary,  the  one  employed  by  him  when 
special  scholarly  accomplishment  was  called  for;  he  was  a 
friend  and  correspondent  of  Erasmus,  whom  he  had  de- 
fended in  controversy  with  ecclesiastical  assailants,  and  who 
addresses  him  in  several  letters  of  warm  affection :  "  a  man 
more  Erasmian  than  Erasmus,"  said  his  friends.  He  had 
also,  in  two  famous  dialogues,  been  the  champion  of  Charles 
himself,  when  attacked  for  his  antipapal  policy.  Charles 
we  must  think  of  here  not  (as  he  is  better  known  in  his- 
tory) as  the  sovereign  soured,  sallow,  and  prematurely  old, 
who  at  fifty-five  laid  by  the  crown,  worn  out  with  care, 
defeat,  and  disappointment ;  not  as  the  baffled  politician, 

1  The  most  accessible  authorities  for  this  very  interesting  chapter  of  the 
Reformation  are:  Cantu,  "  Gli  Eretici  d'ltalia"  (3  vols.  Turin,  1867); 
McCrie's  "  Reformation  in  Italy"  (2  vols.,  London,  1827);  Young's  "  Life 
of  Paleario,"  2  vols.,  including  several  elaborate  special  biographies  (London, 
i860);  G.  Bonet-Maury,  "Origines  du  Christianisme  Unitaire  chez  les  An- 
glais" (Paris,  1881,  2d  ed.   1883,  with  Preface  by  Ur.  Martineau). 

2  Of  this  pageant  Servetus  speaks  in  his  passionate  and  scornful  way  in 
1546:  "With  these  very  eyes  I  saw  him  [the  Pope]  carried  in  proces- 
sion on  the  necks  of  princes,"  etc.  See  "  Christianismi  Restitutio,"  p.  462 
(Book  IL  of  the  "  Reign  of  Antichrist"),  comparing  pp.  I18-121.  This 
visit  to  Bologna,  followed  by  the  colloquies  at  Augsburg,  had  important  con- 
sequences in  the  history  of  the  Reformation. 


711 E  BROTHERS    VALDES.  ^ 

weary  and  sick  with  warring  against  the  stars  in  their 
courses  through  a  period  of  forty  years;  but  as  a  man  of 
fresh  vigor,  five  years  younger  than  the  young  German 
emperor  is  to-day  (1893),  with  the  splendid  possibiHties 
before  him  of  a  reign  that  should  reconstruct  the  Holy 
Roman  Empire  and  reunite  the  divided  church — now 
angry  at  the  obstinate  opposition  of  the  Reformers,  and 
again  accepting  their  alliance  against  Pope  or  Turk,  but 
always  the  object  of  jealous  pride  and  devotion  to  his 
Spanish  countrymen.  Such  was  the  young  hero  whom 
the  brothers  Valdes  now  attended. 

Of  the  two  dialogues,  the  earlier — between  Mercury  and 
Charon  at  the  River  Styx — passes  in  review  the  procession 
of  shades  that  had  gone  to  the  world  below  in  the  late  war 
with  France,  expatiating  freely  on  the  sins  of  ambition, 
wrath,  and  lust  that  went  into  that  conflict,  and  no  way 
sparing  the  vices  of  the  church.  The  other,  in  still  bolder 
strain,  opens  with  a  meeting  of  two  friends,  an  officer  near 
the  court  and  a  churchman  fresh  from  the  war  in  Italy :  it 
gives,  with  a  deep  vein  of  passion,  the  most  vivid  picture 
we  have  of  the  horrors  in  the  sack  of  Rome  (1527),  casting 
the  whole  guilt  of  the  miseries  of  Italy  upon  the  worldly 
ambition  of  pope,  cardinal,  and  priest.  These  daring  com- 
positions, in  the  favorite  literary  form  of  the  day,  had  stirred 
the  papal  envoy  in  Spain  to  bitter  recrimination.  No  man, 
under  protection  less  powerful  than  the  emperor's  own  arm, 
was  safe  from  the  sleepless  enmity  of  the  Spanish  Incjuisi- 
tion.  Charles  could  not  desert  the  young  friends  who 
volunteered  this  bold  and  timely  defense  ;  and  the  brothers, 
both  of  whom  had  a  hand  in  it,  made  (it  is  likely)  part  of 
the  brilliant  escort  that  sailed  with  him  from  Barcelona  in 
September.^ 

1  The  early  history  of  tlie  l)rothcrs  Valdes  was  almost  unknown  till  within 
the  past  few  years  ;  even  tiic  later  biographers  are  confused  in  dates  and  cpiite 


8  THE    UXITAKIANS.  [CllAK  I. 

The  career  of  Alphonso  Valdes,  whether  as  scholar,  diplo- 
mat, or  reformer  (for  he  had  been  deeply  impressed  by  the 
conferences  with  Melanchthon  at  Augsburg),  was  cut  short 
by  his  death  from  plague  at  Vienna,  in  1532.  The  same 
year  Charles,  now  at  Ratisbon,  learned  the  sudden  death 
of  his  viceroy  at  Naples,  and  appointed  to  that  eminent 
post  Don  Pedro  of  Toledo,  brother  of  the  terrible  Aha,  who 
had  something  of  the  other's  severity,  but  apparently  not 
his  implacable  bigotry.  With  him  was  joined,  as  secretary, 
the  younger  Valdes,  whose  story  we  have  next  to  follow. 
He  was  now  not  far  from  thirty-three — an  accomplished 
man  of  letters,  like  his  brother;  a  gentleman  of  infinite 
courtesy  and  sweetness,  who  seems  to  have  produced  on 
his  friends  an  impression  like  that  of  Sir  Philip  Sidney  at 
Elizabeth's  court;  a  Christian  of  deep  and  serious  piety, 
who  had  shared  at  Augsburg  his  brother's  interest  in  the 
religious  side  of  the  Reformed  doctrine.  As  a  friend 
described  him,  on  the  news  of  his  early  death,  he  was 
"  without  doubt,  in  act,  word,  and  counsel,  a  complete 
man ;  it  was  but  a  small  portion  of  his  spirit  that  sustained 
his  frail  and  slender  frame,  while  with  the  larger  portion, 
and  with  pure  intellect  (as  it  were)  apart  from  the  body, 
he  stood  always  uplifted  to  the  contemplation  of  truth  and 
divine  things."  ^ 

irreconcilable  with  one  another.  The  historian  must  patch  them  together  as 
best  he  can.  To  Cantu  it  is  not  quite  clear,  even,  whether  there  were  one  or 
two.  But  a  letter  of  Erasmus  (Ep.  xxii.  15)  addressed  to  the  younger  speaks 
of  him  as,  by  report,  his  brother's  very  double  in  mind  and  person  :  noii  duo 
geinelli,  sed  idem  prorsus  homo.  The  embarkation  at  Barcelona  is  well  em- 
ployed by  D'Aubigne  to  illustrate  the  Spaniards'  enthusiastic  loyalty  to  their 
Prince. 

1  Cantu,  vol.  i.,  p.  383.  Erasmus,  in  a  letter  of  March  20,  1529  (Ep. 
xix.  30),  addresses  him  as  if  he  were  already  escaped  from  .Spain,  which  is 
"  full  of  wasps'  nests,  yea,  of  furious  hornets."  Some  accounts  speak  of  him 
as  having  gone  direct  to  Naples  ;  others  assert  that  he  was  at  Rome  in  1 531, 
in  official  service  with  Clement  VIE  ;  others,  again,  that  he  did  not  reside  at 
Naples  till  1534,  and  then  not  in  attendance  on  Don  Pedro. 


VALDES  IN  NAPLES.  g 

The  line  of  division  between  the  churches  was  still  waver- 
ing and  doubtful.  Valdes,  while  he  never  ceased  to  be  at 
heart  a  devout  and  faithful  Catholic,  soon  set  himself,  with- 
out the  prejudice  there  would  have  been  a  few  years  later, 
to  propagate  the  purest  doctrine  of  the  Reformers  as  to 
'what  we  should  at  this  day  call  the  method  of  the  religious 
life.  In  this  work  he  was  aided  by  a  fine  scholarship,  trans- 
lating considerable  portions  of  the  Scriptures  from  the 
Hebrew  as  well  as  the  Greek.  He  was  favored,  besides, 
by  this  happy  circumstance :  Naples  was  then  under  a  rule 
more  liberal,  enlightened,  and  just  than  most  countries  at 
that  time,  as  is  shown  by  two  striking  evidences :  there 
existed  under  its  immediate  jurisdiction  in  Calabria  a  pros- 
perous community  of  the  Waldenses,  that  had  emigrated 
thither  some  two  hundred  years  before,  and  subsisted  there 
till  it  was  exterminated  with  circumstances  of  peculiar  hor- 
ror in  1560;  and  when,  in  1547,  an  attempt  was  made  to 
force  upon  Naples  the  odious  papal  Inquisition,  it  was  re- 
sisted by  a  storm  of  popular  fury  which  (it  is  said)  cut  ofl 
to  the  last  man  a  garrison  of  three  thousand  that  tried  to 
quiet  the  disorder.  The  freedom  of  thinking,  the  learning 
and  culture,  and  seclusion  from  the  sharp  religious  conten- 
tions of  the  day,  made  this  the  fair  field  where  Valdes  and 
his  friends  began  'a  movement  that  at  one  time  seemed 
likely  to  win  Italy  itself  to  the  side  of  the  Reformation,  or 
at  least  to  secure  standing-ground  for  the  completest  re- 
ligious liberty.  The  story  of  this  movement  remains  the 
single  record  of  his  life  till  his  death,  in  1541,  near  the  age 
of  forty- five. 

The  gospel  that  lay  at  the  heart  of  this  movement  was 
as  absolutely  free  from  dogma  as  it  was  then  possible  for 
such  a  thing  to  be.  It  is  only  in  this  sense  that  the  claim 
sometimes  made  by  Unitarians  of  the  next  generation — 
that  Valdes  was  the  real   founder  of   their  doctrine — can 


lO  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  I. 

have  any  ground  in  fact.  The  propagation  of  it  is  said  to 
have  begun  in  the  palace  of  the  lady  Giulia  Gonzaga — a 
young  widow  of  strange  and  romantic  history,  one  of  the 
most  beautiful,  accomplished,  and  devout  of  the  high-born 
ladies  of  Italy,  to  whom  Valdes  addressed  in  the  form  of 
dialogue  (where  her  responses  are  given  with  much  vivacity 
and  point)  an  elementary  manual  of  piety,  "  The  Christian 
Alphabet,"  the  best  known  of  his  shorter  writings.^  The 
circle  that  had  gathered  first  about  this  lovely  witness  of 
the  new  faith  met  for  a  series  of  years  statedly — a  sort  of 
religious  club — in  the  residence  of  Valdes  himself,  where 
the  long  street  Chiaja  runs  between  the  royal  gardens  and 
the  margin  of  the  bay.  Here  was  found  a  remarkable 
group  of  those  especially  distinguished  for  rank,  refinement, 
learning,  eloquence,  or  piety.  To  such  a  select  class  alone, 
not  directly  to  the  people  at  large,  the  counsels  or  exposi- 
tions of  the  young  secretary  were  addressed.  The  propa- 
ganda included  no  such  thing  as  public  teaching  or  preach- 
ing :  hence  a  certain  aristocratic  or  academic  quality,  which 
at  once  deprived  it  of  popular  effect,  and  gave  it  a  radical 
drift  that  quickly  drew  to  it  a  perilous  attention.  Only 
when  a  genuine  Christian  scholar  like  Peter  Martyr  Ver- 
migli,  afterward  installed  by  Cranmer  as  professor  of  the- 
ology at  Oxford ;  or  a  great  religious  enthusiast  like  Ber- 
nard Ochino,  the  most  eloquent  preacher  of  his  day,  whose 
discourses  were  eagerly  sought  by  several  rival  cities,  and 
who  was  once  deputed  for  a  series  of  Lenten  sermons  at 

1  An  English  translation  of  this  dialogue  is  bound  up  \\\\.\\  WifFen's  biog- 
raphy of  Valdes  (much  the  best  we  have),  and  an  interesting  sketch  of  the 
life  of  his  fair  respondent  (London,  1861).  Beginning  with  the  three  rules 
of  patience,  obedience,  and  discipline,  it  traces  twelve  steps  to  the  higher 
life.  Some  passages  show  a  curiously  close  parallel  with  Tauler.  St.  Paul's 
"hay,  straw,  stubble"  are  explained  as  "  vain  devotions,  with  opinions  and 
fancies  of  men."     (Vol.  xv.  of  the  writings  of  Valdes.) 


CIRCLE    OF   THE  REFORMERS.  I  I 

Naples  ;  or  a  deeply  devout  and  retiring  student  like  Marc- 
antonio  Flaminio,  one  of  the  reputed  authors  of  "  The 
Benefit  of  Christ "  ;  or  a  churchman  of  singular  breadth, 
integrity,  and  courage  like  Pietro  Carnesecchi,  who  met  a 
cruel  death  from  the  Inquisition  in  1567 — chanced  to  be 
drawn  within  the  circle,  he  was  sure  to  catch  something  from 
the  refined  and  serious  spirit  that  presided  in  it,  and  to 
carry  the  same  spirit  into  pulpit  or  desk  or  printed  discourse 
or  priestly  ministration.  And,  as  the  circle  widened  out,  it 
came  to  include  a  well-defined  school  of  religious  thought, 
that  marked  out  the  lines  of  the  short-lived  Italian  Refor- 
mation. 

Little  or  no  jealousy — at  any  rate,  little  or  no  activ«i 
opposition — seems  to  have  been  aroused  by  the  school  of 
Valdes  during  his  own  lifetime.  Within  that  space  of  per- 
haps eight  years,  it  may  be  fairly  said  that  this  type  of 
ardent  but  undogmatic  piety,  raying  out  from  other  centers 
as  well  as  this,  had  taken  possession  of  the  highest  intel- 
ligence and  noblest  life  throughout  Italy.  Among  those 
who  came  directly  under  the  personal  influence  of  Valdes 
or  of  his  immediate  disciples  we  find  that  illustrious  lady 
Vittoria  Colonna,  a  correspondent  of  Ochino,  and  a  devout 
student  of  the  new  word,  whose  friendship  with  Michael 
Angelo  (who  addressed  to  her  the  lofty  strain  of  his  noble 
Sonnets)  makes  one  of  the  finest  and  purest  pages  of  Ital- 
ian literary  history ;  the  lady  Olimpia  Morata,  of  wonderful 
genius  and  learning,  an  instructress  in  the  court  of  Ferrara, 
a  declared  Protestant  in  belief,  who  with  serene  courage 
followed  her  husband  (a  young  German  physician)  through 
years  of  bitter  exile  and  died  of  the  miseries  of  it;  her 
deeply  attached  friend,  the  Duchess  of  P^errara,  Renee 
{Rcnafn),  daughter  of  Louis  XII.  and  sister  to  the  queen 
of  P>ance,  who  bravely  and  steadily  befriended  the  Re- 


12  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  i. 

formers  for  many  years,  till  subdued  by  her  husband's 
harshness  and  threats  of  the  Inquisition;'  the  great  scholar 
and  professor  of  eloquence,  Aonio  Paleario,  friend  of  Ochino, 
who  taught  with  freedom  and  power  in  most  of  the 
chief  towns  of  northern  Italy,  unconscious  or  disdainful  of 
danger,  till  he  was  seized  and  after  two  years'  imprisonment 
hanged  and  burned  in  Rome  at  the  age  of  seventy ;  ev^en 
Reginald  Pole,  a  cardinal  and  a  Plantagenet,  cousin  of  the 
Tudors,  a  friend  of  the  Reformers  and  advocate  of  some  of 
their  opinions,  yet  counseling  them  to  keep  their  doctrine 
to  themselves,  and  consenting  weakly  to  the  cruelties  of 
Bloody  Mary :  "  whether  of  good  or  bad  faith  in  all  this, 
God  knows,"  says  an  Italian  compiler  of  these  times. - 

The  writings  of  Valdes  include  the  counsels  of  personal 
piety  already  mentioned;  a  brief  digest  called  "  One  Hun- 
dred and  Ten  Considerations,"  held  to  be  his  most  char- 
acteristic exposition ;  and  comments  on  several  books  of 
Scripture,  of  which  those  on  the  Psalms  [Salfan'o),  on 
"  Matthew,"  and  on  "  Romans  "  are  best  known.  In  gen- 
eral, these  counsels  and  comments  are  purely  those  of  prac- 
tical and  personal  religion,  extraordinarily  free  from  any 
assumption  or  even  hint  of  dogma.  The  one  point  of 
Christ's  sacrifice  is,  indeed,  incessantly  urged,  in  the  gen- 
eral sense  of  the  Reformers,  and  with  no  reference  what- 
ever to  the  mystery  in  which  it  has  been  enveloped  by  the 
church  ;  but,  apart  from  this,  there  is  little  or  nothing  to 
suggest  an  opinion  on  any  point  in  controversy.  As  to 
such,  he  is  betrayed  into  no  statement  that  may  not  be  put 
in  the  very  words  of  Scripture:  this  makes  what  is  some- 
times called  "  his  private  opinion  on  the  Trinity."  In  the 
commentary  on  Matthew  (for  example),  perliaps  the  most 

1  Generosa  d^oniiiio,  colta  Ji  spirito,  gciitilc  di  modi,  f  <[^[^r//o  d\iviniirazi- 
one  per  quanti  la  circondarano. 

2  "  La  Riforma  in  Italiii  nel  Sccolo  xvi."  (anmi.  Turin,   1S56),  p.  94. 


"  77/Zs    BENEFIT  OF  CIIKISr."  1 3 

extended  and  formal  of  all,  he  speaks  of  Christ  as  Son  of 
God  and  therefore  in  his  own  nature  divine;  but  uses  not 
a  single  phrase  which  a  Unitarian  of  the  older  school  might 
not  have  written,  or  which  a  devout  Trinitarian  would  not 
heartily  accord  witii.  The  line  that  was  presently  to  di- 
vide Protestant  from  Catholic  so  sharply  is  not  (I  think)  so 
much  as  once  hinted  at  in  any  of  these  writings,  except  by 
their  absolute  silence  as  to  anything  which  the  ecclesiastical 
system  might  prescribe. 

The  best  known  type  of  this  religious  movement  is  a 
small  manual  entitled  "  Benefit  of  Christ  Crucified."  This 
little  book,  which  is  the  very  mirror  of  the  life  here  de- 
scribed, had  so  great  currency  in  Italy  that  more  than  40,000 
copies  are  said  to  have  been  issued  from  the  press  of  Ven- 
ice alone ;  and  it  was  so  carefully  suppressed  that  it  was 
thought,  till  its  rediscovery  in  1855,  to  be  (says  Macaulay) 
"  as  hopelessly  lost  as  the  second  decade  of  Livy."^  It  is 
the  voice  not  so  much  of  an  individual,  but  rather  of  a 
school  or  company  of  associates ;  and  it  may  well  enough 
be  held  as  the  real  legacy  of  Valdes  to  his  own  generation. 
To  find  the  motive  of  its  persistent  suppression  in  later 
years,  we  have  only  to  note  its  complete  silence  as  to  the 
doctrine  or  discipline  which  the  papal  church  made  all- 
essential  ;  and  refer  to  the  time — some  twenty  years  later 
than  that  we  have  been  considering — when  the  most  inno- 
cent-seeming symptom  of  a  piety  at  variance  with  that 
church,  or  independent  of  it,  was  mercilessly  hunted  down 
and  trampled  out. 

Into  that  crudest  of  tragedies  we  need  not  enter  here. 

1  Published  in  Venice,  1543;  and,  a  copy  having  l:>een  found  in  the  library 
at  Cambridge,  in  London  (1855),  under  the  name  of  Paleario.  It  has  been 
ascribed  to  Valdes  himself,  and  to  several  of  his  circle — Benedetto  of  Man- 
tua, Ochino,  or  Flaminio ;  but,  from  a  sentence  in  one  of  Paleario's  letters, 
it  seems  to  be  clearly  his,  and  is  generally  so  regarded. 


14  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chai'.  i. 

It  is  enough  to  copy  from  this  manual  a  few  sentences 
which  show  the  characteristic  style  of  doctrine,  clothing 
itself  in  the  very  thoughts  and  phrases  dearest  to  the  heart 
of  the  Reformation, — prefixing  a  statement  (taken  here 
from  Cantu)  of  the  doctrinal  theory  it  rests  on.  We  have 
in  it  a  type  of  opinion  which  it  will  be  important  hereafter 
to  bear  in  mind. 

"  Original  sin  "  (it  teaches)  "  was  the  cause  of  the  ills  we 
suffer,  though  we  knew  it  not  till  the  law  was  given.  The 
first  office  of  the  law  was  to  give  us  knowledge  of  sin ; 
next,  to  enlarge  its  field  by  forbidding  evil  desire ;  third,  to 
show  the  wrath  of  God  toward  those  who  do  not  observe 
the  law ;  fourth,  to  inspire  man  with  fear ;  fifth,  to  constrain 
him  to  turn  to  Christ,  on  whom  alone  depend  the  forgive- 
ness of  sin,  justification,  and  all  our  [hope  of]  salvation.  If 
the  sin  of  Adam  was  alone  enough,  without  our  fault,  to 
render  us  all  sinners,  a  fortiori  the  obedience  ("  righteous- 
ness ")  of  Christ  will  have  power  to  render  us  all  righteous 
and  children  of  grace  without  our  cooperation — which  could 
not  be  virtue  in  us,  unless  we  should  ourselves  become 
good  first.  God,  having  already  punished  all  sin  in  his 
best-beloved  Son,  has  granted  to  mankind  universal  par- 
don, which  every  believer  in  the  gospel  shares.  From 
Christ  alone,  therefore,  may  each  one  know  his  own  salva- 
tion, confiding  not  in  his  own  works,  but  in  him  alone: 
This  pious  confidence  enters  into  our  heart  by  act  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  communicated  to  us  through  faith;  and  faith 
comes  never  without  the  love  of  God.  Hereby  we  feel 
ourselves  moved  with  a  glad  and  active  {opcroso)  zeal  to  do 
good  works ;  we  feel  the  power  to  fulfill  them,  and  to  suf- 
fer all  things  for  the  love  and  glory  of  our  merciful  Father. 
.  .  .  Wherefore,"  the  manual  goes  on  to  say,  "  it  may  be 
clearly  understood  that  the  pious  Christian  need  feel  no 
doubt  of  the  pardon  of  his  sins,  nor  of  the  grace  of  God ; 


DOCTRIXE    OF   GOOD    WORKS.  15 

Still,  to  satisfy  the  reader,  I  will  write  down  some  authori- 
ties of  holy  teachers  which  confirm  this  faith."  Here  he 
introduces  very  many  names  (presumably  Catiiolic),  and 
resumes:  "  Let  no  one,  however,  think — with  those  false 
Christians  who  customarily  degrade  [the  things  they  han- 
dle]— that  true  faith  consists  in  believing  the  history  of 
Christ,  as  if  we  should  believe  that  of  Caesar  or  Alexander, 
or  as  the  Turks  believe  their  Koran.  Faith  does  not  of 
itself,  indeed,  renew  the  heart,  or  warm  it  with  the  love  of 
God,  or  bring  forth  good  works  and  change  of  life :  these 
things  proceed  alone  from  that  true  faith  which  is  the  work 
of  God  in  us.  Justifying  faith  is  like  flame,  which  cannot 
but  yield  light :  thus  it  cannot  burn  sin  away  without  the 
aid  of  good  works.  And  as,  seeing  a  flame  that  sheds  no 
light,  we  know  that  it  is  false,  and  painted,  so  when  in  any 
one  we  see  not  the  light  of  good  works,  we  say  he  has  not 
the  true  faith  inspired  by  God."      (Cantu,  vol.  ii,  pp.  380, 

381.) 

This  doctrine  of  "  Works  "  contains,  in  fact,  the  key  to 
that  stage  of  the  Reformation  at  which  we  are  now  arrived. 
As  the  historian  calls  us  to  note,  it  is  as  far  from  the  daring 
Lutheran  assertion  of  a  faith  wholly  independent  of  works,' 
as  from  the  formal  Catholic  pretension  of  works  apart  from 
faith.  But  it  was  the  Catholic  Church,  not  the  Lutheran, 
that  felt  itself  assailed.  If  not  the  righteousness  it  claimed 
to  teacli,  at  any  rate  the  costly  mechanism  by  which  it 
sought  to  "  transact  the  great  business  of  salvation,"  was 
in  danger  of  getting  obsolete.  In  1542,  the  year  after 
Valdes   died,    the   "  Supreme   and    Universal   Tribunal   of 


1  "When  Melanchthon  sought  at  Ratisbon,  in  1541,  to  come  to  terms 
with  the  Catliolics,  saying  tliat  l)y  justifying  faith  shoukJ  be  understood  a 
faitli  tliat  \vorl<s  by  love,  Luther  declared  that  this  was  a  pitiful  makeshift, 
a  new  patch  on  an  old  garment,  by  which  the  rent  is  made  worse." — Cantu, 
vol.  i.,  p.  297. 


1 6  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  i. 

Inquisition  "  was  established  at  Rome.  He,  at  least,  had 
escaped  the  evil  to  come.  In  1565  his  dearest  and  first 
disciple,  Giulia  Gonzaga,  was  set  free  by  a  timely  death 
from  the  summons  of  that  terrible  tribunal ;  letters  from 
her,  produced  in  the  trial  of  Carnesecchi,  had  shown  that 
there  had  been  correspondence  between  them  and  Calvin 
at  Geneva.  The  steps  by  which,  within  the  next  fifteen 
years,  the  germinating  seeds  of  the  Reform  were  stamped 
out  in  Italy,  belong  to  a  wider  field  than  ours.^  We  have 
only  to  follow  the  fortunes  of  two  or  three,  whose  exile 
brought  them  within  the  lines  of  our  story. 

The  most  noted  and  conspicuous  among  them,  of  those 
who  belonged  to  the  immediate  circle  of  Valdes,  was  the 
famous  preacher  Bernard  (or  Bernardino)  Ochino.  He  was 
a  native  of  Siena,  born  in  1487  (four  years  after  Luther), 
and  in  his  childhood  must  have  known  the  fame,  possibly 
heard  the  voice,  of  Savonarola.  To  that  wonderful  gift  of 
an  impassioned  and  popular  eloquence  Ochino  was  held  to 
be  the  true  s^uccessor.  "  He  preaches,"  said  Charles  V., 
who  heard  him  once  in  Naples,  "  with  such  spirit  and  de- 
votion that  he  would  make  stones  weep  "  {farebbe  piangcre 
i  sassi).  He  emulated  the  great  Dominican  in  austerity, 
joining  first  the  strictest  of  the  Franciscan  order,  the  Cor- 
deliers, and  then  the  Capuchins,  who  for  greater  severity 
had  seceded  from  them  in  1525.  At  middle  life  he  was 
the  most  renowned  of  preachers  in  all  Italy.  "  I  have 
opened  my  heart,"  wrote  Cardinal  Bembo,  "  to  Ochino  as 
to  Christ  himself;  I  have  never  seen  a  holier  man."  He 
was  sent  to  officiate  during  one  religious  season  (1538)  in 
Naples,  where  he  not  only  frequented  the  society  of  Val- 
des, but  is  said  to  have  received  from  him  topics,  argu- 
ments, and  hints  to  carry  before  the    great   crowds  that 

1  The  general  .story  is  well  and  briefly  told  by  McCrie;,  individual  details 
are  more  amply  given  in  Young's  "  Life  of  Paleario." 


OCIIINO.  1 7 

heard  him  from  the  pulpit.  Under  these  influences  a  new 
hfe  opened  before  him.  Without  any  thought  of  separat- 
ing himself  from  the  Roman  Church,  and  while  accepting 
the  highest  honors  that  could  be  given  by  the  religious 
order  he  belonged  to,  he  was  among  the  foremost  of  those 
who  sought  a  radical  reformation  of  that  church  from 
within. 

It  chanced  that,  in  1542,  one  of  his  associates  died  sud- 
denly, poisoned  (it  was  said)  by  some  ecclesiastic.  A  pas- 
sionate appeal  of  Ochino  at  Venice  against  such  methods 
of  attack  on  the  free  conscience  opened  the  eyes  of  the 
authorities.  The  tribunal  of  the  Inquisition  had  been  es- 
tablished at  Rome  on  the  12th  of  July  that  very  year,  and 
he  was  summoned  to  give  an  account  of  himself  before  it. 
In  his  daring  fashion  he  would  have  obeyed ;  but  at 
Bologna  he  received  a  warning  which  led  him  to  consult 
his  friend  Vermigli  (Peter  Martyr),  then  at  Florence,  who 
convinced  him  that  silence  or  death  was  the  choice  he 
would  have  to  make.  In  a  pathetic  letter  to  the  lady 
Vittoria  Colonna  he  justified  the  step  he  was  about  to 
take ;  and,  aided  by  the  noble  Duchess  of  Ferrara,  the 
two  friends  made  their  escape  to  Geneva  in  the  month  of 
August.  His  fall,  said  the  implacable  Cardinal  Caraffa, 
afterward  Paul  IV.,  was  like  the  fall  of  Lucifer,  son  of  the 
morning. 

At  Geneva,  and  again  at  Zurich  and  at  Basel,  Ochino 
became  the  pastor  of  congregations  of  Italian  exiles,  who 
had  fled  to  the  shelter  generously  opened  to  them  by  the 
four  reforming  cantons.  At  Strasburg,  where  was  a  Prot- 
estant theological  college  of  note,  the  services  of  Vermigli, 
most  accomi)lished  and  eminent  of  teachers,  were  em- 
ployed in  instruction  ;  and  here,  a  little  later,  Ochino  joined 
him  as  preacher^to  the  congregation.  We  find,  indeed, 
that  the  restless  and  erratic  temper  of  the  emotional  orator 


1 8  THE    LXITAKIANS.  [Chap.  i. 

was  greatly  steadied  and  balanced  all  along  by  the  calmer 
judgment  and  larger  intelligence  of  his  companion.  While 
the  two  friends  were  here  together,  in  the  first  days  of 
young  King  Edward  in  England,  Archbishop  Cranmer, 
then  looking  abroad  for  what  might  confirjn  and  illustrate 
the  new  reign  of  Protestantism,  invited  them  both  to  posts 
of  dignity  and  service  there — wishing  too,  no  doubt,  to  ad- 
vance the  principles  of  the  Reformation  somewhat  further 
than  had  been  suffered  under  the  imperious  Henry,  who 
piqued  himself  on  a  "  Catholic "  orthodoxy  all  his  own. 
Vermigli  was  appointed  professor  of  theology  at  Oxford, 
and  Ochino  as  a  canon  of  Canterbury,  with  liberty  to  re- 
side in  London.  In  1550,  under  the  general  direction  of 
a  liberal-minded  Polish  noble,  John  Laski,  was  established 
"  the  Strangers'  Church,"  holding  by  royal  grant  an  ancient 
estate  of  the  Augustinian  friars,  Ochino  being  special  pas- 
tor of  the  Italians.  This  Strangers'  Church,  with  its  eleven 
affiliated  provincial  congregations,  became  the  nursery  of 
a  religious  life  that  ripened  afterward  into  various  forms  of 
free  speculation  and  dissent ;  and  it  is  held,  in  particular, 
to  have  been  the  real  fountain-head  of  English  Unitarian- 
ism.^  It  represented  at  this  time  a  population  of  Protest- 
ant refugees,  chiefly  from  the  Netherlands,  which  has  been 
estimated  to  number  more  than  five  thousand.- 

And  here  a  strange  episode  occurs,  throwing  a  vivid 
side-light  on  the  temper  of  theological  discussion  in  that 
day.  At  the  accession  of  Queen  Mary,  in  1553,  foreign 
Protestants  living  in  England  were  naturally  quick  to  avail 
themselves  of  the  days  of  grace  allowed  them,  to  seek  ref- 


1  Professor  Bonet-Maury  notes  that  Norwich,  the  seat  of  one  of  the  afifili- 
ated  churches,  was  the  EngHsli  home  of  the  Huguenot  family  of  Martineau. 

2  Wlien  it  was  restored  under  Elizal)eth,  in  1560,  it  was  put  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Bishop  of  London  ;  and  such  shelter  as  it  might  give  to 
foreign  heresy  was  denied  to  Englishmen  in  1573. 


QUEEN  AEIA'V'S  /'A'/SOXS.  19 

uge  again  upon  the  Continent.  But  at  home  it  came  to 
pass  that  the  most  orthodox  of  AngHcans,  Cranmer  at 
their  head,  were  put  under  the  same  condemnation  and 
cast  into  the  same  prisons  with  the  most  obnoxious  of 
heretics.  These  latter  caught  at  their  chance,  and  were 
eager  to  convert  tiieir  fellow-prisoners ;  so  that  presently 
those  places  of  confinement  became  scenes  of  acrimonious 
dispute.  "  Some  rejected  the  divinity  of  Christ,  others 
his  humanity.  Some  belie\-ed  in  the  impersonality  of  the 
Holy  Spirit;  or,  admitting  that  the  Holy  Spirit  was  a  per- 
son, denied  his  supreme  godhead.  Some,  again,  called  in 
question  the  truth  of  the  doctrine  of  original  sin,  election 
and  predestination,  justification  by  faith,  and  Christ's  de- 
scent into  hell.  Some  denied  the  validity  of  infant  bap- 
tism, and  some  condemned  the  use  of  things  indifTerent  in 
religion."  If  it  is  interesting  to  find  all  these  diversities 
of  modern  creeds  contending  with  one  another  and  with 
that  established  by  law,  in  the  prisons  of  Bloody  Mary, 
still  more  curious  will  be  a  glance  at  the  temper  of  these 
disputes,  as  we  find  it  shown  in  a  tract  of  Archdeacon 
Philpot  of  Winchester,  himself  one  of  the  martyrs  of  that 
day,  written  to  justify  the  insult  he  had  put  upon  a  fel- 
low-prisoner.' It  is  entitled  "An  Apology  of  Jhon  Phil- 
pot  ;  Written  for  spyttyng  on  an  Arian :  With  an  Invective 
against  the  Arians,  the  veri  naturall  Children  of  Anti- 
christ."    The  following  abridged  extract  will  suffice: 

"  I  am  amased,  and  do  tremble  both  in  body  and  sowie, 
to  heare  at  this  day  certen  men,  or  rather  not  men,  but 
covered  with  man's  shape,  parsons  of  a  bestly  understand- 
yng,  who,  after  so  many  and  manifest  benefyts  and  graces 
of  oure  Lorde  God  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ, — and  de- 
clared to  be  both  God  and  man  by  the  spirit  of  sanctifica- 

1  Copied  by  Wallace  (vol.  i.,  p.  23  <7  -""'Y-)  from  Strype's  "  E;:clesia.stical 
Memoirs,"  vol.  iii.,  pt.  2,  \\  ^b^. 


20  THE    UNITARIANS.  [CuAi-.  i. 

tion,  the  eternal  Son  of  God  with  power, — notwithstand- 
yng  are  not  ashamed  to  robbe  this  eternal  Son  of  God, 
and  owr  most  marciful  Saviour,  and  to  pluck  hym  out  of 
the  glorious  throne  of  his  unspeakable  Deity.  O  infidelity, 
more  terrible  than  the  palpable  darknes  of  Egipt!  O 
flaming  fyerbronnes  of  hell! — What  harte  may  bare  such 
blasphemy  ?  What  eye  may  quietly  behold  such  an  en- 
emy of  God?  What  membre  of  Christ  may  allowe,  yn 
any  wyse,  such  a  membre  of  the  Divel?  .  .  .  What  faithful 
servant  can  be  content  to  heare  his  master  blasphemed  ? 
And  if  perchance  he  shew  any  just  anger  therfore,  all 
honest  men  do  beare  with  his  doying  in  that  behalf: 
and  cannot  you,  Christian  bretherne  and  sisterne,  beare 
with  me,  who,  for  the  just  zeale  of  the  glory  of  my  God 
and  Christ,  beyng  blasphemed  by  an  arrogant,  ignorant, 
and  obstinately  blinded  Arian,  making  hymself  equal  with 
Christ,  saying,  that  God  was  none  otherwyse  in  Christ, 
than  God  was  in  hym ;  making  hym  but  a  creature,  as 
he  was  hymself,  [pretending]  you  to  be  without  synne  as 
well  as  Christ,  did  spyt  on  hym?" 

And  any  day,  as  he  well  knew,  the  archdeacon  was  lia- 
ble to  be  burned  at  the  same  stake  with  his  Arian  fellow- 
misbeliever. 

From  their  three  years'  stay  in  England,  Vermigli  and 
Ochino  returned  to  Switzerland.  They  lived  -  mostly  at 
Zurich,  where  their  lives  ran,  in  general,  peaceably  to- 
gether, the  stronger  exercising  (it  would  seem)  a  whole- 
some restraint  upon  the  more  emotional  temper  of  the 
other.  For  Ochino's  only  creed,  it  has  been  said,  was 
"  universal  love  and  one  universal  church " — surely  the 
most  generous  of  gospels.  But  this  religion  of  pure  senti- 
ment has  its  risks ;  and  these  are  apt  to  be  at  their  worst 
when  the  sentimentalist  is  turned  of  sixty.  Ochino  did 
not  quite  escape  the  penalties  of  so  loose  a  creed,  in  the 


OCinXO'S  LATER  LIFE.  21 

loss  of  public  confidence.  It  would  perhaps  have  been 
better  for  his  peace  if  he  had  kept  true  to  his  monastic 
vow.  But,  marrying  late  in  life,  in  a  strange  country,  and 
in  poverty,  he  found  himself  in  old  age  a  widower,  bur- 
dened with  the  charge,  for  which  he  was  peculiarly  unfit,  of 
children  who  died  before  his  eyes  in  his  last  and  painfulest 
exile.' 

We  find,  too,  a  lack  of  dignity  and  self-respect  in  his 
impulsive  expressions  of  opinion.  When  in  Poland,  in 
1559,  lie  had  joined  "at  a  private  conference"  the  anti- 
trinitarian  party,  even  then  under  some  legal  disability, 
although  he  never  frankly  declared  himself  Unitarian  in 
belief.  Various  writings  of  hi.s — including  a  dialogue  on 
the  Real  Presence  and  a  little  treatise  on  Purgatory — are 
still  to  be  found  in  libraries,  testifying  to  his  restless  habit 
of  drawing  everything  into  public  question.  In  1563, 
the  year  after  Vermigli's  death,  he  filled  the  sum  of  his 
ofTenses  by  printing  at  Basel,  in  two  small  volumes,  whose 
thin  disguise  was  easily  seen  through,  thirty  dialogues,  on 
almost  every  topic  held  in  controversy  at  that  day.  The 
dialogue  form  gives  a  dangerous  freedom  of  speculation, 
which  in  general  he  did  not  abuse :  the  worst  that  could 
be  charged  was  that,  like  Abelard's  "Yes  and  No,"  it  is  a 
cover  for  secret  skepticism.  A  brief  treatise  on  Freewill, 
fitly  enough  called  "  Labyrinths,"  showing  all  the  diffi- 
culties of  the  question  and  offering  no  solution,  well  shows 
this  quality  of  his  mind. 

Most  of  these  discussions  are  upon  the  common  ground 
of  theology  or  ethics.     But  the  argument  on  the  Trinity, 

1  1 1  is  wife  was  a  worker  in  linen  {/iiigciv)  whom  he  had  brought  with 
him  out  of  Italy,  probably  one  of  his  humbler  disciples,  whom  (it  is  likely) 
he  married  to  avoid  scandal,  as  well  as  to  give  her  a  safe  and  respectable 
position.  She  was  killed  by  a  fall  downstairs,  which  led  Theodore  Beza  to 
refer,  brutally,  to  the  divine  jiKlsi^nicnt  on  Ochino's  heresy. 


22  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  i. 

and  tliat  on  the  lawfulness  of  polygamy,  proved  his  ruiii. 
In  the  former  the  difficulties  of  the  doctrine  are  put  for- 
ward with  emphasis  and  vigor,  while  its  defense  (which 
the  writer  seems  to  claim  for  his  own  position)  looked  to 
unfriendly  eyes  intentionally  weak.  The  other  gave  still 
deeper  ofifense,  since  the  flagrant  case  of  Philip  of  Hesse 
had  made  the  topic  of  polygamy  a  tender  one  for  Protest- 
ants to  handle.  All  the  respectability  of  Zurich  was  out- 
raged. The  dialogue  was  translated  out  of  its  classic 
Latin  into  broad  German,  and  was. laid  before  the  magis- 
trates. Ochino's  justification  of  himself  was  considered 
to  be  evasive  and  weak,  if  not  insulting  to  his  judges. 
He  was  ordered  to  leave  the  city.  It  was  midwinter,  and 
he  besought  that  in  mercy  he  might  be  allowed  to  wait 
till  spring.  But  the  very  terms  in  which  he  urged  his 
plea  were  interpreted  as  a  fresh  affront.  And  so,  at  the 
age  of  seventy-six,  he  set  forth  with  his  four  boys  to  find 
shelter  in  Basel,  in  Augsburg,  in  Schaffhausen,  and  finally 
under  the  bleak  sky  of  Poland. 

Even  this  poor  refuge  was  denied  him  by  an  edict — 
issued  by  King  Sigismund  under  pressure  from  Cardinal 
Borromeo — that  warned  away  all  assailants  of  the  Trinit}', 
and  he  found  his  last  retreat  in  still  ruder  Moravia.  "  I 
must  obey  the  magistrate,"  he  said  to  friends  who  urged 
him  to  appeal  and  wait,  "  even  if  I  should  be  torn  by  fam- 
ished wolves."  His  boys  had  died  of  plague  in  Poland, 
before  his  eyes ;  and  the  end  came  to  him  a  little  later, 
when  nearly  seventy-eight,  early  in  January,  1565-  In  pity 
of  these  sorrows  one  might  almost  pardon  the  strange  ar- 
rogance of  his  self-assertion  once  in  Cracow :  "  Think  not 
that  you  are  come  hither  to-day  to  see  any  other  than  a 
true  apostle  of  Christ.  P'or  the  name  and  glory  of  Christ, 
and  to  make  clear  the  truth  of  heavenly  things,  I  have 
suffered  far  more  than  any  man  or  any  apostle,  be  he  who 


DOCTRIXE    CONCERNING    CHRIST.  23 

he  may.  has  suffered  for  the  faith.  Nor,  if  the  gift  of 
miracles  lias  not  been  granted  to  me  as  to  them,  should 
you  have  faith  in  me  less  than  in  them,  since  we  teach 
the  same  things  received  from  the  same  God  ;  and  it  is  a 
miracle  great  enough,  to  have  suffered  what  we  suffer."  ' 

We  have  seen  in  several  of  the  extracts  given  abo\'e  how 
intense  a  conviction  of  the  absolute  divinity  and  supreme 
sovereignty  of  Christ  had  been  fostered  under  the  ecclesi- 
astical discipline  of  the  thousand  years  that  went  before 
the  great  conflict  of  the  Reformation ;  so  that  it  is  no 
wonder  that  any  question  of  that  conviction  should  ha\-e 
been  held  by  most  of  the  Reformers  themselves  as  a  sort 
of  trea.son  to  their  rightful  King.  In  fact,  the  first  devel- 
oped form  of  Unitarian  opinion — that  for  which  Servetus 
suffered  at  Geneva  in  1553 — held  that  "the  whole  nature 
and  e.ssence  of  God  is  in  Christ,"  as  at  once  the  revealed 
God  of  the  Old  Testament  and  the  Divine  Word  of  the 
New ;  in  whom,  most  literally,  "  dwelt  the  fullness  of  the 
Godhead  bodily  "  ;  who  is,  to  us,  the  only  Deity  we  can 
truly  worship,  since  to  us  the  Eternal  Source  of  Being  is 
necessarily  and  forever  unknown.  The  deeply  instructive 
and  tragic  story  of  this  next  development  of  opinion  will 
make  the  topic  of  the  succeeding  chapter. 

1  Canti\,  vol.  ii.,  p.  63. 


CHAPTER   II. 

SERVETUS. 

The  name  of  Servetiis  is  to  most  persons  best  known, 
perhaps  only  known,  by  the  ghastly  martyrdom  he  under- 
went at  Geneva.  But  from  our  present  point  of  view  it 
has  a  far  higher  interest  and  value ;  for  he  was  the  first 
to  attempt  that  still  unfinished  task  of  modern  criticism, 
to  interpret  the  Christian  doctrine  direct  from  the  Bible 
text,  and  that  alone,  discarding  all  the  established  creeds 
and  all  ecclesiastical  tradition.  Thus  a  somewhat  full 
study  of  him  is  essential  to  the  jjurpose  we  have  in  hand ; 
for,  though  far  from  being  a  Unitarian  by  any  modern 
standard  of  belief,  his  life  marks  a  very  critical  point  in 
the  movement  which  Unitarianism  represents.  His  at- 
tempt shows  faults  of  the  man  and  faults  of  the  time — ar- 
rogance of  temper,  excess  of  self-confidence,  haste,  disdain 
of  his  antagonists,  and  total  ignorance  of  much  that  the 
critic  of  our  day  must  take  for  granted.  But,  with  what- 
ever defect  in  knowledge  or  temper,  it  was  intelligent, 
bold,  self-consistent,  made  with  absolute  conviction  of 
being  right ;  and  so,  not  at  all  unworthy  to  be  the  pioneer 
in  its  own  line  of  advance. 

We  do  not  find  it  easy  to  understand  the  motive  which 
made  the  death  of  Servetus  appear  at  the  time  a  necessary 
and  even  meritorious  act ;  still  less,  the  eager  assent  with 
which  the  leading  Reformers,  almost  without  exception, 
triumphed  in  it.  Calvin  was  not  alone  party  to  it.  Ser- 
vetus was,  in  the  strictest  sense,  a  victim  to  the  general 

24 


THE   REFORM J-.KS   ON  SERVETUS.  25 

opinion.  He  escaped  from  the  fire  of  the  Roman  Inquisi- 
tion only  to  perish  more  cruelly  in  the  flame  kindled  by 
Protestant  intolerance,  in  the  very  month  that  saw  Mary 
Tudor  seated  on  the  throne  of  England.  It  will  be  con- 
venient to  copy  here  the  words  in  which  Calvin  introduces 
him  to  us  in  the  first  sentences  of  his  "  Refutation " : 
"As  in  our  time  God  has  bestowed  upon  the  world  this 
singular  grace,  to  bring  back  to  life  the  pure  doctrine  of 
the  gospel,  which  had  so  long  been  buried,  so  in  our  own 
knowledge  the  devil  has  used  his  customary  craft  to 
darken  this  light,  raising  up  many  fantastical  spirits  which 
have  sown  the  seeds  of  \-arious  errors,  as  of  Anabajjtists, 
Freethinkers,  and  the  like.  But  among  the  rest  lias  been 
a  certain  Spaniard,  Michael  Servetus  by  name,  who  has 
heaped  up  a  confused  mass  of  lawless  dreams,  such  that 
his  impiety  surpasses  all  the  mischief  which  others  have 
contrived  to  do.  Though  I  plainly  saw  tiiat  his  poison 
was  more  deadly,  still  it  did  not  seem  to  me  expedient  to 
apply  the  remedy  direct,  and  contend  against  his  errors  of 
set  purpose,  seeing  that  their  absurdity  was  so  gross,  that 
I  might  hope  they  would  soon  vanish  of  themselves  in 
smoke,  without  any  man's  opposing  them.''^  This  "  Ref- 
utation," signed  by  fourteen  others  of  the  Protestant 
leaders,  in  which  it  is  argued  that  heretics  must  be  put 
down  by  the  sword,  was  published  a  little  less  than  six 
months  after  the  burning  of  Servetus.  In  reply  to  it  Me- 
lanchthon  wrote:  "  I  have  read  your  brilliant  refutation  of 
his  horrible  blasphemies.  I  thank  the  Son  of  God,  who 
has  given  you  the  prize  of  victory.      The  church  now  and 


1  Works,  vol.  viii.,  p.  457.  Tlie  English  Puritan,  John  Owen,  says  of 
Servetus  a  century  later  (1655) :  "  lie  is  the  only  person  in  the  world,  that 
I  ever  read  or  heard  of,  that  ever  died  upon  the  account  of  religion,  in  refer- 
ence to  whom  the  zeal  of  them  that  put  him  to  death  may  be  acquitted." 
— "  \'indicix'  Kvangelicre. " 


26  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Ciiai-.  ii- 

hereafter  owes  and  will  owe  to  you  her  gratitude.  I 
assent  absolutely  to  your  judgment.  I  assert  that  your 
magistrates  have  done  right  in  putting  the  blasphemer  to 
death  by  the  regular  forms  of  justice."  And  three  years 
later  he  wrote,  "  It  is  a  pious  and  memorable  example  to 
all  posterity."  ^ 

What  was  the  career,  and  what  was  the  theological 
offense,  that  called  down  this  all  but  universal  execration  ? 

Michael  Servetus  was  a  gentleman's  son  of  Aragon 
(probably),  born  it  is  uncertain  whether  in  1509  or  151 1, 
his  testimony  on  his  two  trials  making  the  year  doubtful : 
we  may  here  assume  the  earlier.  For  twenty  years  of 
his  life,  during  his  residence  in  France,  he  was  known 
only  as  Michel  de  Villoiciroe  (Michael  of  Villanueva),  from 
the  name  of  his  birthtown.  Of  very  precocious  intelli- 
gence, he  received  his  early  instruction  at  the  regular  con- 
vent school,  and  then  (it  is  supposed)  at  Saragossa.  Some- 
where about  the  age  of  sixteen,  electing  law  instead  of  the 
ecclesiastical  career  he  had  been  intended  for,  he  was  sent 
to  the  celebrated  college  at  Toulouse.  Here  the  tradi- 
tions seem  to  have  been  grave,  almost  monastic,  with 
some  vivid  memories  of  the  old  Albigensian  persecution : 
thus  we  read  of  "  the  iron  cage  suspended  from  a  beam 
above  the  river,  for  ducking  heretics  until  the}^  died "  ; 
and  of  "  the  religious  processions  that  filed  incessantly 
through  the  streets."-  Under  these  influences  the  attrac- 
tion of  law  gave  way  to  the  keener  fascination  of  theology. 
The  Lutheran  writings  had  at  this  time  considerable  circu- 
lation in  Spain  and  in  the  south  of  France ;  and  we  hear 
of  a  treatise  on  "  Rational  Theolog}^  "  by  Raymond  de 
Sabunda,  making  Nature  as  well  as  Scripture  one  way  of 
ascent  to  divine  knowledge,  which  is  commonly  supposed 

1    Wdrks,  vol.  i\.,  p.   I  ;!. 

-  Cited  in  R.  Willis's  "  .Servetus  and  Calvin,"  p.  12. 


SEKVETUS  AND   MELANCIITIION.  27 

to  have  influenced  the  young  student's  course.  He  says 
himself  tliat  he  learned  some  things  from  h^asmus.  As 
early  as  sixteen,  or  thereabout,  lie  must  have  been  an 
eager  student  of  the  Bible,  bringing  to  it  at  least  a  fair 
elementary  knowledge  of  Hebrew  as  well  as  Greek,  with 
an  extraordinarily  vigorous  and  independent  mind  of  his 
own.  A  genius  for  religion  as  well  as  a  genius  for  con- 
quest, we  are  told,  was  the  haughty  claim  of  his  country- 
men in  those  days.  Spaniards  were  "  the  knights  of 
faith." 

In  particular,  Servetus  is  held  to  have  been  influenced 
by  a  small  treatise  of  Melanchthon,  called  "  Theological 
Topics  "  [Loci  Thcologici),  which  was  then  the  universally 
accepted  text-book  of  the  Reformed  theology.  This  was 
first  published  in  152 1  (the  year  that  Luther  appeared  at 
Worms),  when  its  writer  was  only  twenty-four  years  old, 
and  was  at  once  received  with  extraordinary  favor.  "  That 
little  book,"  said  Luther,  "  contains  more  solid  doctrine 
than  any  other  since  the  days  of  the  apostles."  ^  Its  frank 
protest  against  the  logical  method  of  the  schools  was  sure 
to  attract  the  student,  eager  for  novelty,  and  encourage 
him  to  bolder  steps.  There  might  be  prejudice  against 
Luther,  who  had  headed  a  revolt  dangerous  to  state  as  w^ell 
as  to  church ;  but  the  young,  eloquent  scholar,  associated 
almost  from  boyhood  with  the  studies  of  Reuchlin  and 
Erasmus,  those  famous  men  of  letters,  was  sure  of  a  more 
friendly  hearing.  His  words  almost  certainly  confirmed 
the  purpose  to  which  Servetus  held  with  singular  tenacity 

1  A  "  centennial  "  edition,  a  page-for-page  and  word-for-word  copy  of  the 
first,  was  published  at  Leipzig  in  182 1,  giving  with  it  certain  fundamental 
changes  in  later  editions.  Those  of  1535,  1543,  and  1559  show  a  widening 
departure  from  the  original  point  of  view — the  discussions  at  Augsburg,  with 
the  bolder  criticism  of  Servetus,  having  forced  attention  to  the  metaphysical 
grounds  of  the  doctrine  then  deemed  orthodox.  The  passages  cited  below 
(p.  31)  are  copied  from  the  Leipzig  edition. 


28  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  ii. 

through  life,  to  work  out  a  more  simple,  more  logical,  more 
purely  Scriptural  form  of  exposition  than  any  Reformer 
had  yet  dared  to  think.  ^ 

These  studies  were  interrupted,  in  the  summer  of  1529, 
by  a  summons  to  attend  Quintana,  the  emperor's  private 
confessor,  to  the  convention  at  Bologna"  and  to  the  diet 
held  the  following  year  at  Augsburg.  Quintana  was  a 
Spanish  monk,  likely  to  be  trusted  by  the  emperor  in  coun- 
sel, to  say  nothing  of  the  immense  authority  conferred  on 
him  by  his  office.  He  was,  besides,  a  man  of  open  mind 
and  liberal  temper,  put  for  the  occasion  in  place  of  one 
more  bigoted  and  severe,  who  was  dispatched  on  a  compli- 
mentary mission  to  Rome.  Approaching  with  slow  and 
halting  steps  a  conference  likely  to  decide  his  whole  future 
policy  toward  the  Reformers,  Charles  found  it  essential  to 
be  cautious  and  moderate  in  his  dealing  with  them ;  and 
for  this  the  qualities  of  his  confessor  were  what  he  needed. 
At  Spires,  in  1529,  they  had  signed  the  celebrated  Protest 
against  the  terms  enacted  by  the  diet  there,  and  by  that 
act  had  come  to  be  known  under  the  formidable  name 
"  Protestants."  This  attitude  of  theirs  was  menacing, 
backed  as  they  were  by  the  high  national  spirit  of  the 
secular  German  princes.  But  they  had  not  yet  learned  to 
distrust  the  emperor's  good  faith.  Above  all,  they  knew 
that  their  allegiance  was  of  value  to  him,  flanked  as  he 
was  by  the  hostility  of  France  and  the  Turk.  They  put 
forward  Melanchthon,  accordingly,  as  their  champion  like- 

^  All  this  is  very  eloquently  said  by  Tollin  in  his  most  instructive  book, 
"  Melanchthon  und  .Servet,"  without,  however,  citing  any  external  evidence 
of  such  influence.  Servetus  nowhere,  except  in  a  final  a]ipeal  to  Melanchthon 
appended  to  his  "  Restitutio,"  speaks  of  him  in  person,  though  appearing  as 
a  constant  critic  of  his  argument ;  while  Melanchthon  betrays  an  anxious 
study  of  his  critic,  to  whom  he  refers  with  increasing  animosity,  culminating 
in  the  words  before  quoted. 

2  See  note,  p.  6  (above) :   "  With  these  very  eyes,"  etc. 


CONFERENCES  AT  AUGSBURG.  29 

Hest  to  keep  the  peace,  detaining  Luther  at  the  safe  dis- 
tance of  Coburg,  a  hundred  and  twenty  miles  away. 

In  the  very  critical  negotiations  at  Augsburg,  lasting 
nearly  six  months  (from  early  in  April,  1530),  Melanchthon 
appeared  more  than  once  to  go  dangerously  beyond  his 
instructions  on  the  way  toward  Rome,  and  had  to  be  held 
sharply  in  hand  by  Luther  and  the  secular  princes.  Hold- 
ing that  there  was  no  doctrinal  point  of  difference  at  stake, 
he  was  led  to  accept,  one  after  another,  positions  of  the 
Scholastic  theology  which  he  found  essential  to  his  own 
argument  on  matters  of  faith,  particularly  the  Trinity ;  and 
of  these  positions  we  shall  find  that  he  has  a  disturbing 
consciousness  when  he  comes  to  face  the  criticisms  of  Ser- 
vetus.  But  with  the  Catholic  party  tlic  question  narrowed 
down  to  the  very  practical  one  touching  the  efficacy  of 
sacraments,  authority  of  the  priesthood,  and  the  value  of 
"  works"  as  essential  to  salvation.  Once  on  this  ground, 
compromise  was  plainly  not  to  be  thought  of.  "  Salvation 
by  faith" — not  "  works" — was  the  one  thing  at  issue.  The 
conferences  came  to  an  end  with  the  rejection  of  the 
Protestants'  "Apology"  on  the  22d  of  September.  The 
Reformation  itself  was  saved,  under  a  "  Confession  "  that 
still  left  it  something  substantial  to  contend  for. 

As  confidential  attendant  upon  Ouijitana,  Servetus  was 
himself,  if  not  a  member  of  the  emperor's  household,  at 
least  very  close  to  it.  He  was  thus  likely  to  be  witness  to 
some  of  the  more  private  discussions,  and  may  even  have 
come  to  know  more  than  one  of  the  leading  Reformers  in 
person — nay,  have  visited  Luther  (as  is  possible)  so  far 
away  as  Coburg.  This  critical  time  of  the  Reformation 
was  a  critical  moment  in  his  own  career.  He  had  already 
been  sharply  offended  by  the  ostentatious  despotism  of  the 
hierarchy.  He  was  now  brought  face  to  face  at  once  with 
the  strength  and  weakness  of  the  Reformers.      His  own 


30  rilE    UXITARIAXS.  [CiiAi'.  ii. 

scheme  of  reconstruction  was  taking  shape  in  his  thought. 
Personal  independence  might  seem  all  that  was  needed  to 
complete  it.  Suddenly,  without  either  quarrel  or  explana- 
tion that  we  know,  he  left  the  service  of  Ouintana  and  re- 
tired to  Switzerland,  the  common  refuge  of  freethinkers. 
We  find  him  presently  at  Basel,  in  lively  dispute  with 
CEcolampadius,  who  urges  against  him,  "  You  do  not  ad- 
mit, then,  that  the  Son  of  God  was  to  be  a  man,  but  [hold] 
that  a  man  was  to  be  the  Son  of  God;"  and  bids  him 
"  confess  the  Son  consubstantial  and  coeternal  with  God, 
that  we  may  hold  you  to  be  a  Christian."^  In  his  reply 
Servetus  seems  to  dread  some  restraint,  and  begs  that  he 
may  not  be  hindered  from  putting  forth  in  France  certain 
"  books  "  which  he  has  ready  against  the  fair  at  Lyons. 

This  means,  no  doubt,  the  first  literary  work  of  Servetus, 
"  De  Trinitatis  Erroribus  "  ("  Errors  Implied  in  the  Trin- 
ity ").  It  iippears  in  a  neat  volume  of  about  two  hundred 
pages,  handsomely  printed  at  Hagenau,  near  Strassburg, 
without  name  of  publisher  or  place  of  publication,  but 
with  the  writer's  name  in  full :  per  Ulic/iac/on  Servcto  alias 
Rcvcs^-  under  the  date  1531.^  The  disputes  wifli  CEcolam- 
padius had  probably  made  Servetus  eager,  and  his  pub- 
lisher reluctant,  to  incur  the  risk.  It  was  followed  the 
next  year  by  two  dialogues  on  the  Trinity,  in  which  the 
argument  is  expanded  and  reinforced,  and  four  brief  essays 
— on  Justification,  Christ's  Kingdom,  Law  and  Gospel,  and 
Charity — all  bound  up  with  it.  A  second  edition,  nearly 
facsimile,  was  published  after  his  death  in  Holland. 

Before  we  consider  the  substance  of  the  book,  it  is  well 


1  Calvin,  Works,  vol.  viii.,  p.  86i  ;   also,  toucliing  Zwingli,  p.  744. 

2  Conjecturally,  his  mother's  family  name. 

3  A  very  handsome  eopy  was  kindly  put  at  my  service  l)y  Rev.  S.  M. 
Jackson,  secretary  of  the  Society  of  Church  History.  A  manuscript  copy  is 
in  the  Harvard  University  lilirary. 


MKLA.\C//yJ/OiV'S  ''TOPICS:'  31 

to  recall  for  a  moment  the  argument  and  style  of  Melanch- 
thon's  "  Topics,"  which  made,  in  a  sense,  the  immediate 
occasion  of  it.  The  motive  with  Mclanchthon,  as  we  have 
seen,  is  almost  purely  practical  and  undogmatic.  Specula- 
tions on  the  metaphysical  grounds  or  reasons  of  a  trinity 
he  seems  wholly  to  disown.  "  To  know  Christ,"  he  says, 
"is  to  know  his  works  {boicficia) ;  not,  as  the  dogmatists 
teach,  to  gaze  upon  the  mode  of  incarnation.  ...  It  is 
Christian  knowledge  to  know  what  the  law  requires ; 
whence  you  are  to  obtain  power  to  fulfill  the  law,  or  par- 
don for  transgression ;  how  the  afflicted  conscience  may 
be  comforted  "  (p.  9).  "  The  Holy  Spirit  is  nothing  else 
than  the  living  will  and  act  of  God ;  when,  therefore,  we 
are  new-born  of  the  Spirit,  which  is  the  living  will  of  God, 
we  already  of  ourselves  do  that  very  thing  which  the  law 
commands"  (p.  128).  He  thus  discards  the  theory  of 
hypostasis,  or  quasi-personality,  the  ground  (as  commonly 
held)  of  the  church  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  The  very 
term  hypostasis,  which  figures  largely  in  his  later  discus- 
sion of  the  subject,  appears  only  once  in  all  this  essay,  and 
is  there  very  inadequately  rendered  "  expectation  of  things 
hoped  for"  (Heb.  xi.  i).  This  rendering,  further,  betrays 
the  weakest  point  in  Melanchthon's  view,  making  the 
Christian  salvation  a  matter  of  promise  only,  not  of  present 
fulfillment ;  against  which  Servetus,  with  strong  emphasis, 
urges  the  assurance  of  present  salvation — as  an  earnest  of 
that  hereafter — in  the  sense  of  Paul,  and  of  all  in  every 
time  who  have  best  understood  the  mind  of  Paul.  Again, 
in  exposition  of  the  Divine  Word :  "  The  Son  is  called 
image,  or  ivord;  he  is  thus  an  image  or  likeness  begotten 
by  the  thought  of  God  " — further  explained  by  saying 
that,  while  our  thoughts  are  but  evanescent  acts,  into 
which  we  do  not  convey  our  being,  the  thought  of  God  is 
"  an  image  of  himself,  not  evanescent,  but  subsisting  by  the 


32  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  ii. 

communication  to  it  of  his  own  being"  (p.  250).  This 
might,  indeed,  be  taken  as  a  noble,  poetic  way  of  defining 
every  act  of  immediate  creation ;  but  when,  instead,  it  only 
asserts  the  exceptional  generation  of  one  Divine  Person  in 
the  image  of  the  Father,  it  becomes  a  phrase  of  arbitrary 
dogmatics,  opening  an  easy  way  to  more  rationalizing 
speculation,  which  Servetus  takes  prompt  advantage  of. 

Turning  back  now  to  his  essay,  we  are  struck  first  of  all 
by  the  wonderful  self-assertion  of  this  youth  of  two-and- 
twenty — what  some  have  called  the  haughty  temper  of  the 
Spaniard — that  shows  in  it.  Servetus  never  appears  in  the 
attitude  of  the  modest  learner ;  not  even  as  a  sober  reason- 
er,  ready  to  meet  an  opponent  on  equal  terms  in  courteous 
debate.  He  is  always  self-confident,  ardent,  aggressive. 
In  stating  his  point  he  takes  a  tone  of  superiority,  almost 
of  condescension,  and  demands  rather  than  invites  assent. 
His  argument  is  oftenest  pure  assertion ;  often,  again,  it  is 
(as  in  speaking  of  moral  freedom  and  the  value  of  right 
conduct)  plain  good  sense,  cutting  through  the  subtleties 
of  formal  theology  in  a  fashion  his  opponents  were  no  way 
prepared  for.  Perhaps  they  found  it  hardest  of  all  to 
understand  his  plea  (p.  78),  "All  my  philosophy  and  all  my 
science  I  find  in  the  Bible." 

It  is  to  be  observed  of  his  argument,  that  he  nowhere 
attacks  the  Trinity  or  the  deity  of  Christ, — which  indeed 
in  his  own  fashion  he  explicitly  asserts, — but  only  attempts 
to  show  how  those  most  orthodox  of  terms  are  to  be  under- 
stood. The  opening  paragraph  is  as  follows:!  "In  explor- 
ing the  holy  mysteries  of  the  Divine  Triad  I  have  held  that' 
one  should  begin  with  the  Man ;  for  I  see  that  many,; 
having  not  the  foundation  of  Christ,  in  their  flight  of  spec-j 
ulation  on  the  Word  ascribe  little  or  nothing  to  the  Man; 
and  even  give  the  true  Christ  completely  over  to  oblivion. 
These  I  will  take  care  to  remind  who  this  Christ  really  is. 


"DE    TKIXJIATIS   ERRORIin\S:'  33 

Further,  wliat  and  how  much  is  to  be  ascribed  to  Christ, 
the  church  shall  judge.  Since  the  [masculine]  pronoun 
shows  that  what  they  call  '  the  Humanity  '  is  a  man,  I  will 
assume  these  three  points:  i.  This  [man]  is  Jesus  Christ; 
2.  He  is  the  Son  of  God;  3.  He  is  God"  (p.  i).  And 
again  :  "  What  is  reflected  [of  Deity]  in  the  Word  is  Christ 
Jiiiusclf:  as,  if  I  hold  a  mirror,  you  may  see  me  both  face 
to  face  and  in  the  mirror,  but  it  is  only  one  person  that 
you  see ;  ...  in  such  a  mirror  God  willed  and  ordained 
that  he  should  himself  be  seen  "  (pp.  94,  108).  "  The  Word, 
when  God  utters  it,  is  God  Jii)iiself  speaking;  and  since 
the  Word  was  made  man,  we  understand  by  it  Christ 
himself,  who  is  the  Word  of  God"  (p.  48).  "Christ 
is  himself  the  face  [that  is,  the  visible  aspect,  facics'\  of 
the  Father.  There  is  no  other  Person  of  God  but  Christ; 
there  is  no  other  hypostasis  of  God  but  he;  the  entire 
godhead  of  the  Father  is  in  him"  (p.  112).  "God 
in  himself  cannot  be  conceived  in  thought.  He  is  known 
not  in  his  nature,  but  in  manifestation  {specie) ;  not  by 
nature,  but  by  grace"  (p.  12).  All  theories  of  the  Divine 
nature,  apart  from  the  Word,  are  "  blasphemies  against 
Christ"  (p.  103).  "The  only  Trinity  is  a  trinity  of  mani- 
festations or  modes  of  action,  not  of  persons ;  and,  as 
Tertullian  teaches,  tliat  trinity  will  cease  in  the  eternal 
world  "  (p.  82).  "  There  is  no  Spirit,  properly  so  called, 
outside  of  man.  Stephen  saw  in  vision  both  God  and 
Christ,  but  no  third  Person ;  'Angels  behold  the  face  of 
your  Father,'  not  of  a  Trinity  "  (p.  30). 

A  few  examples  may  be  added,  to  illustrate  the  pungent 
and  epigrammatic  turn  of  phrase :  "  Of  Christ's  kingdom 
the  door  is  Faith,  the  inner  court  is  Paternal  Life,  and  all 
the  way  between  is  Love."  Of  the  dogmatists,  "All  seem 
to  me  to  have  part  truth,  part  error;  and  every  one  looks 
down   on    his   neighbor's   error,    but    sees   not   his   own." 


34  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  ii. 

"  More  faith  is  to  be  given  to  one  truth  confessed  by  an 
enemy,  than  to  a  thousand  falsehoods  of  our  friends." 
"  The  church  may  remain,  and  yet  not  remain  the  church 
of  God  "  (p.  43).  "  Faith  is  the  substance  of  things  hoped 
for ;  but  not  the  Lutheran  faith  "  (p.  96) ;  that  is,  a  present 
sah^ation,  not  a  mere  promise  or  "  shadow  of  things  to 
come."  And,  touching  predestination,  "There  is  no  past 
or  future  with  God"  (p.  81). 

Such  a  challenge  as  this  was  sure  to  command  attention. 
Melanchthon,  in  particular,  found  himself  compelled  to  re- 
^  consider  his  earlier  positions.  For  a  time  he  seems  to  hes- 
jitate.  "  You  ask,"  he  writes  to  a  friend  in  February,  1533, 
"  what  I  think  of  Servetus.  I  see  that  he  is  keen  and 
adroit  in  disputation ;  but,  frankly,  I  do  not  allow  him 
weight.  He  has,  I  think,  confused  fancies  and  notions 
not  well  shaped  out  upon  the  things  he  treats.  As  to 
Justification,  he  is  clearly  wild;  about  the  Triad,  you 
know  I  have  always  feared  those  [disputes]  would  break 
out  some  time.  Good  God!  what  tragedies  will  this 
question  stir  among  our  successors:  if  the  Logos  is  an 
hypostasis,  if  the  Spirit  is  an  hypostasis  !  I  turn  to  those 
words  of  Scripture  which  bid  us  call  upon  Christ :  this  is 
to  render  him  Divine  honor,  and  is  full  of  consolation.  But 
to  seek  ont  anxiously  the  notions  and  differences  of  hypos- 
tases is  no  great  profit. ' '  ^ 

This  letter  of  Melanchthon  has  been  called  "  the  parting 
of  the  ways."  So  far,  it  might  seem  possible  that  the 
current  of  doctrinal  opinion  among  the  Reformers  should 
be  turned  into  a  broader  channel,  and  that  he  had  it  in  his 
power  to  say  the  decisive  word.      He  is  just  now  giving 

1  The  italics  here  represent  the  Cireek  phr.ases  which  Melanchthon  is  fond 
of  using:  the  term  triad  is  less  compromising  than  trinity.  "Where  he 
agrees  with  Rome,"  says  Tollin,  "  he  talks  church  Latin;  where  he  differs, 
the  language  of  the  New  Testament  "  (p.  84). 


SERVETUS  IX  FRANCE.  35 

serious  study  to  Servetus :  Scrvctniii  mnltnvi  lego ;  but 
with  less  and  less  of  favor.  In  a  little  more  than  a  month 
his  course  is  clear;  "  he  has  decided  to  retract,"  and  to 
reconstruct  his  theology  (as  we  have  seen)  on  the  ancient 
lines.  He  approaches  Rome  by  accepting  the  Scholastic 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity  and  the  church  doctrine  of  Works 
— influenced,  perhaps,  by  memories  of  the  radical  outbreak 
of  1525  in  Germany,  and  of  the  pressure  brought  to  bear 
at  Augsburg.^  A  few  years,  later  (1539),  he  writes  to  put 
the  authorities  of  Venice  on  their  guard  against  the  dan- 
gerous .spread  of  the  "  Servetian  heresy  "  in  northern  Italy. 
"Spain,"  said  Zanchi,  "produced  the  hen,  Italy  has  hatched 
the  eggs,  and  now  we  see  the  chicks  beginning  to  peep!" 
Meanwhile  Ser\-etus  has  vanished  out  of  sight,  and  the 
name  is  unheard  among  men  till  he  reappears,  twenty  years 
later,  at  his  fatal  trial  in  Geneva.  Still  in  early  youth,  less 
than  twenty-four  years  old  at  most,  he  did  not  care  to  face 
the  storm  he  had  raised.  His  reform  might  wait,  and  there 
was  enough  else  he  had  to  learn  and  do.  Those  twenty 
years  he  spent  in  France,  as  Michel  dc  Villencuve.  For 
some  years  he  is  a  student  in  Paris,  learning  anatomy  with 
Vesalius,  lecturing  on  astronomy  and  physical  geography, 
disputing  on  theology  with  Calvin,  even  practicing  judicial 
astrology,  which  brings  him  into  trouble,  and  obliges  him 
to  seek  another  place  and  occupation.  During  some  part 
of  these  years  he  has  found  employment  with  a  publisher, 
Trechsel,  in  Lyons ;  and  of  his  labors  at  this  time  we  have 
an  interesting  proof  in  a  handsome  folio,  a  Latin  translation 
of  the  geographer  Ptolemy,  adorned  with  rude  cuts  and 
some  fifty  ruder  maps,  published  in  1535."  The  curious 
reader  finds  in  this  volume  a  paragraph  on  Palestine,  which 
was  brought  up  against  Servetus  in  Geneva,  eighteen  years 

1  Wliat  the  alternative  mij^lit  liave  l)een  is  eloquently  put  byToIlin  (p.  133). 
'  Tlii.s  c<lition  is  in  tlic  Ilarvanl  University  library.  ** 


36  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chai-.  ii. 

later,  as  a  fling  in  the  face  of  Scripture :  "  Still  you  must 
know,  kind  reader,  that  such  excellence  has  been  unjustly 
or  in  pure  boasting  ascribed  to  this  land,  seeing  that  the 
experience  itself  of  merchants  and  travelers  avows  it  to 
be  rude,  sterile,  and  lacking  every  charm.  This  Promised 
Land  you  may  call,  indeed,  a  land  of  promise ;  but  not  (as 
we  should  say)  a  land  to  praise."^ 

Now  it  happened  that  wliile  lecturi»g  in  Paris  Servetus 
had  gained  the  friendship  of  a  young  ecclesiastic,  Pierre 
Paumier,  who  was  in  course  of  time  promoted  to  be  Arch- 
bishop of  Vienne,  on  the  Rhone,  twenty  miles  south  of 
Lyons.  He  now,  hearing  of  his  old  friend  as  a  physician 
practicing  in  Charlieu,  not  far  off,  persuaded  him  to  remove 
to  that  city,  giving  him  a  home  under  his  own  protection 
in  the  precincts  of  his  palace.  For  twelve  years  Servetus 
here  led  a  life  comparatively  prosperous  and  at  ease,  with 
widening  reputation  as  a  practitioner  and  a  man  of  letters. 
His  most  important  work  during  this  time  was  to  revise 
and  superintend  the  printing  of  a  very  elegant  Latin  Bible — 
Pagnini's  version,  first  printed  fourteen  years  before.-  The 
new  work  appeared  in  1542.  \\\  this  Servetus  took  another 
dangerous  step  in  his  chosen  career  of  independent  critic 
and  expositor.  He  was,  perhaps,  the  first  who  introduced 
historical  criticism  into  the  systematic  study  and  interpreta- 
tion of  the  Bible  ;  and  he  did  it,  naturally,  in  a  way  to  bring 
him  into  trouble  afterward.  Thus,  in  commenting  on  the 
Hebrew  prophets,  he  takes  the  bold  ground  of  asserting 
that  all  their  predictions,  rightly  understood,  deal  with 
events  and  persons  of  their  own  time ;  and  this  method 
he  carries  out,  in  his  own  positive  fashion,  in  the   case  of 

1  The  reading  and  construction  are  here  a  little  doubtful. 

2  For  an  account  of  this  extremely  rare  edition,  see  Le  Long's  ' '  Bibliotheca 
Sacra,"  vol.  iv.,  pp.  473,  477,  and  in  Pettigrew's  "  Bibliotheca  Sussexiana," 
vol.  ii.,  pp.  388,  408;  compare  Calvin,  Works,  vol.  viii.,  p.  497.  Presum- 
ably, no  copy  of  it  exists  in  this  country. 


THE   PAGKIXI  BIBLE.  37 

those  prophecies  wliich  have  been  and  still  are  most  confi- 
dently held  to  foretell  explicitly  the  distant  reign  of  the 
Messiah.  He  makes  terms  with  current  opinion,  it  is  true  : 
"  the  sublimity  and  truth  of  these  words  belong  to  Christ 
alone,"  whose  passion  they  foretell;  but  the  "natural 
sense"  comes  first.  Catholic  and  Protestant  were  scandal- 
ized alike.  It  may  be  true  that  Servetus  only  anticipates  a 
method  that  has  since  justified  his  bold  sagacity  in  many 
cases ;  but  in  the  eyes  of  his  contemporaries  all  the  great  ■ 
strains  of  prophecy  seemed  to  be  profaned  by  mere  auda- 
cious guess-work.  The  pierced  hands  and  feet  are  those 
of  David,  in  flight  among  the  thorny  hills ;  the  gall  and 
vinegar  given  him  to  drink  point  at  the  churlish  inhospi- 
tality  of  Nabal ;  the  promised  Child,  the  Wonderful,  the 
Prince  of  Peace,  only  anticipates  the  glories  of  Hezekiah's 
reign ;  and,  worst  of  all,  the  Man  of  Sorrows,  on  whom 
"  the  Lord  hath  laid  the  iniquity  of  us  all,"  is  King  Cyrus, 
in  the  sharp  conflict  through  which  he  fought  his  way  to 
victory !  ^  To  the  mind  of  that  day  all  this  seemed,  and  it 
was,  a  gratuitous  ofTense.  To  us  the  interest  is  rather  in 
the  premature  attempt  at  a  natural  interpretation ;  still 
more  (it  may  be)  in  the  hint  it  gives  of  a  restless,  vain,  and 
reckless  temper  in  the  man. 

This  task,  it  is  likely,  was  what  drew  Servetus  back  into 
the  circle  of  irresistible  attraction  toward  his  earlier  studies. 
In  1546,  four  years  after  Pagnini's  Bible  appeared,  he  had 
completed  the  draft  of  his  one  elaborated  and  independent 
work,  that  which  he  gave  the  best  labor  of  his  life  to  finish, 
and  which  in  the  finishing  exacted  the  forfeit  of  his  life. 
This  wopk  is  his  "Christianity  Restored"-  {Christiaiiisnii 
Restitutio).      It  is,  as  we  have  it  now,  in  size  a  thick  i2nio 

'   Tlu-sc  exaiiiplos  are  t.ikcn  from  Willis's  "  Servetus  and  Calvin." 
-  Better,  perhaps,  "  Reconstruction  of  Cliristendoni  "  (or,  "  Christ's  True 
Kingdom  "),  as  sug,t;ested  by  the  Rev.  Alexander  Cordon. 


38  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  ii. 

(strictly,  a  small  8vo)  of  734  pages.  In  substance  it  is 
made  up  of  three  parts :  a  Recast,  much  modified  and  ex- 
panded, of  his  early  critique  on  the  Trinity,  in  seven 
books ;  a  series  of  Essays,  in  seven  books,  on  special  topics 
— faith  and  justice  of  Christ's  kingdom,  regeneration,  the 
Lord's  Supper,  the  reign  of  Antichrist — some  of  these 
being  treated  with  great  vigor,  power,  and  indignant  elo- 
quence;  and  a  Sequel,  of  thirty  letters  written  to  Calvin 
in  the  correspondence  that  now  followed,  closing  with  an 
"  Apology  "  addressed  to  Melanchthon.  Servetus  was 
now,  at  the  age  of  thirty-seven,  fully  equipped,  as  he  felt, 
to  claim  and  hold  his  own  place  among  the  reformers  of 
the  church.  He  would  measure  himself,  first,  with  those 
who  seemed  to  be  pillars  of  the  Reformation  ;  and  so,  in 
an  evil  hour,  he  sent  a  copy  of  his  manuscript  draft  to 
Calvin  in  confidence  {siib  sigillo  sccrcti),  soliciting  any  com- 
ment he  might  wish  to  make. 

The  fortunes  of  the  book,  as  we  shall  see,  were  as 
strange,  almost  as  tragic,  as  those  of  the  writer.  Cah-in 
never  returned  the  manuscript,  which  was  long  after  hunted 
up  and  used  in  evidence  at  the  trial  of  Servetus.  Instead 
of  comment  he  sent  a  copy  of  his  own  "  Institutes,"^  with 
the  remark  that  he  had  no  time  for  discussion  :  his  opinion, 
he  said,  would  be  found  recorded  there.  To  his  friend 
Farel  he  wrote :  "  Servetus  has  sent  me  a  big  volume  of 
his  own  ravings,  with  the  sw^agger  of  a  bully  {thrasoiiicc), 
saying  that  I  shall  find  wonderful  and  unheard-of  things  in 
it.  If  I  will  consent,  he  proposes  to  come  here.  But  I  W'ill 
not  pledge  him  my  word ;  for  if  he  should  come,  only  let 
my  authority  prevail,  /  will  never  let  Iiiui  go  axvay  alive.'" - 

1  Servetus's  title  is  a  manifest  parallel,  or  travesty,  of  Calvin's  "  ChristiAn- 
ismi  Institutio." 

2  To  P'arel,  February,  1546.     He  writes  in  nearly  the  same  terms  to  Viret 
(cited  in  evidence  in  the  case  of  Bolsec). 


"CII/^IST/AAVSMI  RESTITUTIO.''  39 

Scrvetus,  with  like  amenity,  sent  back  his  copy  of  tlie  "  In- 
stitutio  "  with  abunckint  comments  in  his  own  style  written 
on  the  margin.  "  There  is  hardly  a  page,"  writes  Calvin 
in  his  acrid  phrase,  "  that  is  not  defiled  by  his  vomit." 

The  "Restitutio"   went    slowly   through    the    press   at 

Vienne,  under  its  author's  supervision,  at  a  small  printing- 
office  in  an  obscure  quarter  of  the  town.  This  was  not, 
apparently,  from  any  dread  of  publicity  on  his  own  part ; 
possibly  on  the  printer's  account,  whom  he  did  his  best  to 
screen  upon  his  trial.  But,  to  gi\'e  the  book  its  best  effect, 
its  publication  was  held  in  reserve  as  a  surprise  upon  the 
public.  Early  in  the  fatal  year  1553  a  thousand  copies 
were  made  up  in  two  great  bales  of  five  hundred  each, 
one  being  intended  for  the  Easter  fair  at  Frankfort,  and 
the  other  for  distribution  nearer  home.  With  superfluous 
courtesy,  or  (as  he  would  call  it)  effrontery,  an  advance 
copy  was  sent  to  Calvin.  That  copy  is  one  of  the  three 
(or  four,  the  number  stated  by  Professor  Schaff)  of  the 
original  issue  now  known  to  exist ;  it  was  used  in  evidence 
at  the  trial  of  Servetus  in  Geneva,  and  is  now  in  the  great 
library  at  Paris,  blackened  by  time  and  scrawled  over  with 
notes  of  the  prosecuting  counsel.  A  second  found  its  way 
through  many  hands  to  Transylvania,  and  at  length,  for 
safe-keeping,  to  the  imperial  library  at  Vienna.  A  third, 
"  the  most  valuable  of  all,  containing  the  original  Procc- 
iniujn,  with  pathetic  autobiographical  touches,"  belongs  to 
the  University  of  Edinburgh.^ 

Servetus,  as  we  must  remember,  was  not  yet  known  by 
his  true  name  in  France.  The  only  indications  of  it  in  the 
volume  are  in  the  Hebrew  text  on  the  title-page,  "At  that 

1  See  note  to  an  article  by  tlie  Rev.  A.  Clonlon  in  the  "  Tlieological  Re- 
view "  for  1878,  p.  412.  An  edition  corresponding  with  this  page  for  page 
was  printed  in  1790. 


40  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  ii. 

time  shall  Michael  the  prince  stand  up  "  (Dan.  xii.  i.) ;  ^  the 
occurrence  of  the  full  name  as  that  of  a  person  in  the  dia- 
logue (p.  199) ;  and  the  initials  M.  S.  V.  at  the  end  of  the 
book.  These  were  not  needed  for  identification,  but  were 
enough  for  evidence.  Calvin  at  once,  through  a  corre- 
spondence at  second-hand  which  he  would  afterward  have 
gladly  disowned,  put  the  Catholic  authorities  in  Lyons 
upon  the  track  of  the  heretic  sheltered  at  Vienne  in  the 
archbishop's  own  palace.^  So  promptly  was  this  done, 
that  the  bale  of  books  lying  there  was  seized,  unopened, 
and  within  a  few  days  Servetus  was  a  prisoner  of  the  In- 
quisition. His  arrest  was  procured  by  one  of  the  basest 
tricks  even  of  the  inquisitorial  police — sending  for  him  to 
visit  a  sick  patient,  and  waylaying  him  upon  this  errand  of 
mercy. 

He  was  speedily  tried,  and  condemned  of  heresy.  But, 
while  waiting  sentence,  he  quietly  walked  out  of  the  prison 
gate  at  four  o'clock  one  fine  morning,  availing  himself  of 
certain  liberties  allowed  him — expressly,  it  would  seem,  to 
invite  his  escape,  since  his  medical  skill  had  made  him 
friends  among  the  officials.  For  four  months  he  was  now 
lost  to  view.  His  effigy  was  burned  in  all  due  form.  The 
bale  of  his  books  was  consumed  in  the  same  pile.  The 
Protestant  authorities  at  Frankfort  were  warned  meanwhile, 
and  the  copies  sent  there  were  also  destroyed. 

For  four  months,  then,  Servetus  wandered  up  and  down 

1  An  allusion  not  only  to  his  own  name,  but  to  the  approaching  reign  of 
the  saints  (Rev.  xii.  7),  which  he  eagerly  predicted. 

2  The  part  taken  in  this  by  Calvin  is  doubtful.  He  himself  says,  "  There 
is  nothing  in  it,"  which  Rilliet  thinks  conclusive.  The  letters  were  written 
by  a  friend  of  his,  De  Trie,  and  at  his  instigation,  perhaps  dictation,  as 
shown  by  Dr.  Willis  to  be  almost  certain.  The  second  letter  is  particularly 
damaging,  as  it  shows  that,  to  make  the  evidence  conclusive,  Calvin  for- 
warded to  Vienne  private  communications  in  Servetus's  handwriting,  which 
he  had  requested  to  have  returned,  but  which  were  treacherously  used 
atrainst  him. 


ARREST  AND    TRIAL   OF  SERVETUS.  41 

in  France,  barred  from  Spain  by  the  Inquisition,  and  vainly 
seekintj^  a  way  of  escape  to  Naples.  On  the  12th  of 
August,  on  a  Saturday  night,  he  appeared  at  a  little  inn  in 
Geneva,  meaning  to  seek  a  boat  and  cross  the  lake  next 
morning.  But  the  strict  Genevan  Sabbath  forced  him  to 
wait.  An  improbable  account  even  has  it,  that  he  had  lain 
hid  there  nearly  a  month,  seeking  to  find  friends,  or  make 
them,  among  the  enemies  of  Calvin ;  since  this  was  a  criti- 
cal year  in  the  town  politics,  and  the  contention  was  sharp 
between  the  "  patriots "  who  made  the  civil,  and  the 
"  strangers "  who  made  the  religious,  aristocracy.  On 
Sunday,  the  13th,  attending  with  characteristic  rashness  at 
the  afternoon  service,  he  was  recognized,  and  before  night 
he  was  lodged  in  jail. 

Of  the  tedious  trial  that  followed  the  record  is  given  in 
minute  detail,  impossible  to  copy  here.^  Two  or  three 
points,  however,  we  need  to  bear  in  mind.  Calvin,  while 
he  urged  the  prosecution  and  did  all  he  could  to  bring  it 
to  a  fatal  issue,  appears  only  once  in  the  course  of  the  trial, 
at  the  end  of  the  preliminary  four  days'  examination 
(August  I4th-I7th),  which  was  to  prove  \\\^  fact  of  heresy. 
After  this,  the  trial  was  purely  a  criminal  process  before 
the  Lesser  Council,  a  secular  tribunal  of  twenty- five  mem- 
bers, all  laymen,  to  determine  the  guilt  and  penalty  of  the 
propagation  of  heresy,  as  a  crime  against  the  public  peace. - 

1  It  has  Ijeen  very  clearly  suiiimarized  Vjy  Albert  Rilliet,  in  a  small  volume, 
of  which  a  translation  appeared  in  Edinburgh  in  1846.  A  briefer  and  prob- 
ably fairer  account  is  given  by  Saisset  in  the  t'  Revue  des  deux  Mondes," 
1848,  vol.  i.,  p.  585. 

2  The  items  of  the  charge  are:  "  i.  That  for  twenty-four  years  he  has  dis- 
turbed the  peace  of  the  churches  ;  2.  That  he  has  printed  an  execrable  book 
(the  "  De  Erroribus  ") ;  3.  That  lie  has  not  ceased  to  scatter  the  poison  of  his 
heresy;  4.  That  he  has  printed  a  second  book  (the  "  Restitutio");  5.  That 
he  has  broken  out  from  lawful  imprisonment." — Calvin's  Works,  vol.  viii., 
pp.  727-731.  The  triiiunal  at  Vienne  had  found  him  guilty  of  "  scandalous 
heresy,  dogmatizing,  fabrication  of  new  doctrines  and  heretical  books,  sedi- 


42  THE   UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  ii. 

Again,  this  latter  stage  of  the  process, 'occupying  two 
months,  shows  three  distinct  periods,  or  phases.  In  the  first 
(August  2ist-24th),  Servetus,  who  has  been  thoroughly 
cowed  by  the  ferocity  of  the  attack  or  else  exhau.sted  by 
the  debates,  is  submissive  and  humble,  standing  only  on 
his  defense.  In  the  second,  he  takes  heart  from  the  atti- 
tude of  the  Council  (which  has  just  nullified  a  decree  of 
excommunication  pronounced  by  Calvin  and  his  clergy 
against  Berthelier,  leader  of  the  hostile  party),  and  is  so  far 
emboldened  as  to  make  a  formal  countercharge  against 
Calvin,  demanding  that  he  be  put  on  trial  instead,  under 
the  same  risks  and  penalties,  including  forfeiture  of  goods 
to  him,  Servetus.  This  stage  continues  till  near  the  end 
of  September  (August  23d-September  22d).  Meanwhile, 
it  is  resolved  (contrary  to  the  advice  of  Calvin)  to  ask 
advice  of  the  four  leading  Swiss  Protestant  churches, — in 
Basel,  Zurich,  Berne,  and  Schaffhausen, — a  course  that  oc- 
cupies four  weeks,  and  still  further  encourages  the  accused. 
His  fate  really  turned  on  the  answers  from  these  churches; 
and,  foreseeing  this,  Calvin  took  due  measures  to  forewarn 
them.  In  each  case  the  reply  was  to  the  same  effect :  all 
confided  in  the  wisdom  of  the  Genevan  Council  to  put  a 
stop  to  heresy,  while  none  hinted  at  the  means.  Rejecting 
Calvin's  plea  that  execution  should  be  "  by  the  sword," 
the  Council  ordained  death  by  fire,  so  conforming  to  the 
old  imperial  law.^ 

The  sentence  was  drawn  out  at  great  length  on  the  26th 
of  October.  Servetus  did  not  know  it  till  the  next  day, 
Friday,  two  hours  before  the  execution,  when  for  a  moment 
he  was  completely  broken  down,  as  Calvin  tauntingly  re- 

tion,  disturbance  of  public  order  and  peace,  reliellion,  disobedience  to  ordi- 
nances against  heresy,  and  breaking  out  of  the  royal  prison." 

1  Established  by  the  emperor  Frederick  II.  in  1243  (Mansi,  vol.  xxiii., 
p.  589:  lit  vivi  ill  conspectii  hoiniiuiiii  coiubiiraiitiiy). 


HIS  MARTYRDOM:   ITS  MOTIVE.  43 

ports.  On  a  rising  ground  near  the  lake,  a  little  eastward 
from  the  city,  he  was  chained  to  a  stake;  and  (the  account 
in  "  Sandius  "  ^  says)  for  more  than  two  hours,  while  stifling 
in  the  fumes  of  straw  and  brimstone,  suffered  the  torture 
of  a  fire  of  "  green  oak  fagots  with  the  leaves  still  on,"  the 
wind  blowing  the  flame  so  that  it  would  only  scorch,  not 
kill,  till  the  crowd,  in  horror,  heaped  the  fuel  closer.  His 
last  cry  was,  "  Jesus,  Son  of  the  Eternal  God,  have  mercy 
on  me!"  Farel's  retort  was,  "  Call  rather  on  the  Eternal 
Son  of  God!"  "I  know  well  that  for  this  thing  I  must 
die,"  Servetus  had  written  not  long  before;  "but  not  for 
that  does  my  heart  fail  me,  that  I  may  be  a  disciple  like 
the  Master.  "- 

To  modern  feeling  this  "  ferocious  pedantry,"  as  Saisset 
calls  it,  seems  as  idle  as  it  was  merciless.  But  in  truth, 
the  entire  process  of  thought  for  which  Servetus  suffered 
is  contained  in  it.  If  we  look  through  the  whole  long 
record  of  his  cross-questioning,  or  the  longer  controversy 
that  went  before,  we  find  in  it  the  one  position  on  which 
he  never  varies.  He  will  never  admit  the  transcendental 
fiction  of  hypostases,  or  quasi-personalities,  to  represent 
the  agency  of  the  Eternal  Word  or  the  Holy  Spirit  in 
man's  redemption.  In  this  one  thing  he  departs  furthest 
from  the  thought  of  his  own  day,  and  approaches  nearest 
to  ours.  His  theology  is,  in  the  strictest  meaning  of  the 
term,  "  Christocentric."  As  Tollin  phrases  it,  "  From  first 
to  last  he  asserts  Jesus  Christ — the  personal,  historic,  indi- 
vidual man — to  be  God  throughout  {durcli  und  dnrcJt),  and 
always  holds  fast  to  that  belief."  It  is  Scriptural,  in  the 
sense  that  every  point  of  it  rests  on  the  exactest  exposition 

1  Supposed  to  have  come  from  Socinus  tlirough  his  grandson  Andreas 
Wiszowaty  ( IVissowatiiis). 

2  The  words  were  copied  by  Saisset  from  tlie  Latin  in  Scrvetus's  hand- 
writing. 


44  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  ii. 

of  the  Bible  phrase,  by  a  rule  of  interpretation  he  has 
honestly  adopted,  in  full  accord  with  Melanchthon's  earliest 
and  most  widely  accepted  work. 

If  now,  upon  a  general  view,  we  try  to  see  what  was 
the  actual  contribution  Servetus  made  to  the  religious 
thought  of  his  day,  we  shall  find  it  to  be  something  like 
the  following.  First  is  his  rejection  of  the  purely  meta- 
physical or  scholastic  Trinity,  with  his  supreme  exaltation 
of  Christ,  in  which  he  approaches  much  more  nearly  the 
"  new  orthodoxy  "  than  either  the  Unitarian  criticism  or 
the  philosophic  rationalism  of  our  day.  Next  in  impor- 
tance is  his  vigorous  assertion  of  a  present  salvation  through 
Christ,  as  opposed  to  the  formal  and  feeble  "  expectancy  " 
into  which  the  living  gospel  of  the  New  Testament  had 
been  dwarfed  by  Melanchthon ;  together  with  the  vindica- 
tion of  that  gospel  from  the  restraint  of  the  Mosaic  Law. 
Next  is  his  repudiation  of  infant  baptism,  which  he  attacks 
with  a  scornful  vehemence  quite  unintelligible  to  us,  till  we 
see  how  to  his  mind  it  carried  with  it  the  theory  of  sacra- 
mental eflficacy  that  made  the  evil  power  of  sacerdotalism, 
under  the  assumption  of  a  birth-curse,  to  be  removed  only 
by  magic  spells  or  "  sorcery."  It  is  in  this  connection  that 
he  calls  Calvin  "  a  thief  and  a  robber,"  as  bringing  souls 
into  the  fold  "  not  through  the  Door,  but  by  another  way  "  ; 
and  recommends  to  him  the  following  prayer:  "  Most  mer- 
ciful Jesus,  Son  of  God,  who  with  such  token  of  love  didst 
take  little  children  in  thine  arms  and  bless  them :  bless 
now,  and  by  the  hand  of  thy  power  guide,  these  little 
ones,  that  by  faith  in  thee  they  may  be  sharers  of  thy 
heavenly  kingdom.  O  most  gentle  Jesus,  Son  of  God, 
who  from  birth  wast  wholly  free  from  guilt,  grant  that 
without  guile  we  may  abide  in  the  simplicity  of  these  in- 
fants, that   the   kingdom  of  heaven,  which   thou   hast  de- 


THE  DOCTRINE    OE  S/'.Rl'ETL'S.  45 

clared  to  belong  to  such,  may  so  by  thy  favor  be  kept  for 
us;  and  by  thy  boundless  mercy  may  they,  made  humble 
in  spirit,  be  gathered  into  it!"  (Ep.  xvi.)  Surely,  these 
are  not  the  words  of  one  who,  as  has  been  said,  in  rejecting 
the  baptism  of  infants,  left  them  to  eternal  death! 

Regarding  the  nature  of  absolute  Deity,  we  have  seen 
that  Servetus  holds  it  to  be,  in  the  phrase  of  our  day,  "  un- 
knowable." His  opinion  on  that  matter  is  interpreted  as 
"  the  higher  pantheism  "  of  the  Neo-Platonists,  of  Spinoza, 
Schleiermacher,  and  Emerson.  His  later  language  on  mat- 
ters of  religious  speculation  is  increasingly  mystical,  as  it 
has  been  with  very  many  of  native  religious  genius,  and 
as  it  notably  was  with  St.  Augustine.  In  constructing  a 
rational  Christianity,  however,  whose  mysteries  are  devel- 
oped frofn  the  data  of  metaphysics,  he  is  the  forerunner 
not  of  the  modern  mystics,  but  (says  Saisset)  of  the  philo- 
sophical schools  of  Kant,  Schelling,  Hegel,  and  Schleier- 
macher. 1 

In  re.spect  to  the  ultimate  destiny  of  man,  Servetus 
implies,  if  he  does  not  positively  assert,  a  universal  redemp- 
tion through  purgatorial  flame,  purifying,  not  avenging. 
"  Place,  time,  and  motion  shall  cease  when  sky  and  earth 
are  passed  away  ;  after  the  resurrection  we  shall  dwell  in 
the  Divine  Idea  alone"  (Ep.  xvii.).  Last,  and  from  the 
human  point  of  view  most  significant  of  all,  is  his  vigorous 
assertion  of  moral  liberty:  "By  such  assertions  to  argue 
the  will  enslaved  is  as  if  you  were  to  say,  /  cannot  fly  : 
therefore  viy  wi/l  is  in  bondage.''  In  keeping  with  this  is 
his  estimate  of  good  works  and  his  doctrine  of  salvation  : 

1  See  two  articles  in  tlic  "  Revue  des  deux  Mondcs  "  of  1S48,  vol.  i.,  ]i]i. 
585,  817.  "  These  articles,"  writes  Mr.  Ciordon,  "  are  superseded  hy  Pelayo's 
masterly  analysis  of  Servetus  as  a  '  pantheistic '  thinker  in  '  Los  Ileterodoxos 
I'lspaiioles,'  vol.  ii." 


46  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chai'.  ii. 

"  In  the  gospel,  to  save  is  to  make  zi'Jiolc ;  that  is,  to  heal 
one  who  is  sick.  .  .  .  Good  works  avail  when  they  are 
naturally  good :  they  are  even  of  service  to  those  who  are 
justified  already."  All  this  was  sorely  against  the  mind  of 
the  Reformers,  and  doubtless  weighed  in  the  scale  against 
him.  But  thus  it  was,  says  the  Lutheran  Tollin,  that  "  he 
won  for  the  Lutherans  their  doctrine  of  liberty  against  the 
rigid  Predestination  of  Calvin,  which  he  attacks  with  his 
keenest  weapons."  The  pantheism  he  was  charged  with 
might,  it  is  true,  seem  to  swallow  up  all  free  will  in  man. 
But,  as  he  held  it  himself,  the  life  of  God  in  the  soul  neces- 
sarily implies  free  volition :  "  Where  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord 
is,  there  is  liberty."^ 

By  diligent  search  among  his  writings,  a  list  was  made 
of  thirty-eight  charges,  or  counts  of  heresy.  Some  of  these 
turn  on  terms  or  phrases  of  pure  metaphysics — essence, 
substance,  person  [Iiypostasis),  and  the  like — which  have 
little  or  no  clear  meaning  to  the  common  mind ;  some  on 
matters  of  gratuitous  offense,  as  when  he  compares  the 
popular  trinity  to  a  three-headed  Cerberus  or  the  monster 
Geryon,  or  says  the  Trinitarians  are  logically  atheists,  or 
calls  the  rite  of  baptism  "sorcery."  Some  are  affronts  or 
offenses  purely  personal.  In  the  final  summing  up  are 
given  these  four :  "  Scandals  and  troubles  in  the  churches, 
lasting  now  these  four-and-twenty  years;  blasphemies 
against  God ;  infesting  the  world  with  heresies ;  calumnies 
against  the  leading  Reformers,  especially  Cahin."  The 
grounds  of  these  have  been  sufficiently  shown  already. 

The  real  motive  of  his  condemnation'was  a  sort  of  terror 
that  came  upon  the  Protestant  world,  lest  its  great  work 

1  It  is  in  exposition  of  bis  llieory  of  the  Spirit  working  witln'n  us  that  he 
introduces  his  famous  illustration,  or  discovery,  of  the  pulmonary  circulation 
of  the  blood  ("  Restitutio,"  pp.  169-174).  Perhaps  this  was  what  made  his 
enemies  say  tliat  he  had  reduced  the  Holy  Ghost  to  air! 


ESTIMATE    OE  SERVETUS.  47 

should  be  undone.  Not  heresy  as  opinion,  but  the  propa- 
gation of  heresy,  was  the  crime  of  which  Servetus  was 
found  guilty.  As  to  the  guilt  of  that,  no  doubt  the  minds 
of  his  judges  were  stirred  by  memories,  less  than  thirty 
years  old,  of  revolutionary  disorders,  Anabaptist  and 
Antinomian,  that  went  wild  through  all  Germany.  What 
the  Reformation  just  then  needed,  as  they  might  well 
think,  was  not  so  much  liberty  of  thinking,  as  concert  of 
action.  Mere  liberty  of  thinking  they  might  well  dread. 
There  still  lay  before  it  a  century  of  struggle,  always  ob- 
stinate and  often  desperate,  to  save  its  very  life.  Servetus 
had  the  faults,  along  with  the  fine  chivalrous  quality,  of  a 
free  fighter  in  a  deadly  field.  Mere  freedom  of  specula- 
tion, like  his,  runs  out  fast  to  individualism,  to  infinite  sub- 
division, to  moral  weakness  and  decay. 

Servetus  did,  perhaps  could  do,  no  one  great  construct- 
ive work.  That  "  Calvinism  saved  Europe  "  is  a  verdict 
cited  with  approval  by  the  most  advanced  liberalism  of 
our  day.  ^  This  is  a  testimony,  not  to  the  truth  of  CaK-in's 
creed,  but  to  the  rigor  of  his  administration.  Protestant- 
ism, to  do  its  work  in  the  world,  had  first  of  all  to  take 
the  form  of  a  strong  executive  force,  inexorable,  uncom- 
promising, able  to  meet  the  adversary  on  his  own  gnnind. 
The  relentless  theocracy  of  Geneva,  the  rigid  Presbj'terian- 
ism  that  John  Knox  carried  thence  to  Scotland,  the  mili- 
tary temper  of  the  Netherlands  under  the  sternest  creed 
of  Calvinism,  the  sober  valor  that  founded  a  Puritan  com- 
monwealth in  England  and  America — these  made  its  dom- 
inating and  fighting  force.  Servetus  came  "  with  a  light 
heart  "  across  its  path,  and  was  crushed.  His  martyrdom 
was  its  one  chief  crime  against  the  free  conscience  it  had 
invoked.  The  single  motive  we  can  easily  understand 
or  pardon   in  that  crime  is  the  genuine  alarm  his  prosecu- 

1  By  John  Morlcy,  in  tlic  "  Nineteenth  Century"  for  February,  1892. 


48  THE   INrfARlANS.  [Chap.  ii. 

tors  betray,  lest  by  forcing  their  hard-won  Hberties  forward 
into  fresli  fields  of  controversy  they  should  risk  the  whole. 
The  error  which  looked  to  them  so  flagrant  they  hoped  to 
burn  away  in  his  funeral  pile.  But  his  truth  is  saved  for 
us  by  that  very  fire,  which  tries  every  man's  work  of  what 
sort  it  is.  For,  without  that  baleful  light,  it  would  doubt- 
less have  perished  with  him. 


CHAPTER   III. 

SOCINUS. 

Among  the  Italian  free  inquirers  who  sought  refuge  in 
Switzerland  from  dread  of  the  Roman  Inquisition,  we  find 
the  name  of  Laelius  Socinus.  He  had  been  conspicuous 
(it  is  said)  in  a  society  or  club  formed  in  1546  of  about) 
forty  members,  who  were  accustomed  to  meet  in  Vicenza,!' 
to  discuss  questions  growing  out  of  the  new  Reform,  in-J 
eluding  the  church  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  This  was  the 
same  year  when  Servetus  opened  his  correspondence  with 
Calvin;  and  his  doctrine  had  already  (1539),  as  we  see  in 
Melanchthon's  correspondence,  been  reported  as  danger- 
ously current  in  northern  Italy.  What  with  him  had  been, 
a  motive  of  exalted  religious  mysticism  became  with  these  I 
young  men  a  topic  of  scholarly  criticism  and  rational  in- 
quiry. The  society,  if  it  ever  had  a  formal  existence,  was 
soon  dispersed.  Its  secret  ramifications  were  traced.  The 
inquisitorial  police  were  set  on  all  sides  to  the  task  of  up- 
rooting its  feeble  growth.  In  Venice  it  was  thought  to 
suppress  the  rising  heresy  by  drowning  in  the  sea.  We 
are  told'  how  the  victims  were  taken  out  by  night  in  boat- 
loads, the  boats  being  connected  two-and-two  by  a  plank- 
laid  across,  upon  which  the  condemned  were  placed ;  then, 
the  boats  being  pulled  suddenly  apart,  they  were  plunged 
into  the  water,  just  gasping  a  prayer  to  Christ  as  the  waves 
of  the  Adriatic  closed  over  them.  The  more  fortunate 
found   safety  in   exile.     Lrclius,  with   some   of    his   com- 

1  By  Canlu,  also  l)y  Rankc. 
49 


50  THE    LWITARIANS.  [Chap.  in. 

panions,  escaped  to  Switzerland  in  1547;  and  here,  after 
a  year  or  two  of  travel,  he  found  a  home,  usually  in 
Zurich,  for  most  of  his  remaining  years,  till  his  death,  in 
1562.1 

The  family  of  Socinus  i^SozrAtii)  was  eminent  in  Siena, 
and  was  allied  by  marriage  with  several  houses  of  rank, 
notably  that  of  Piccolomini.  Their  family  record,  as  gi\-en 
by  Cantu,  preserves  more  than  two  hundred  names.  The 
father  of  Laelius,  Mariano,  had  been  "  captain  of  the  peo- 
ple," lecturer  on  jurisprudence  in  two  or  three  universities, 
and  ambassador  to  Florence  and  to  the  pope.  An  anec- 
dote of  his  youth  is  that,  being  reproved  for  more  than 
once  neglecting  a  college  exercise,  he  answered  simply, 
"I  have  married  a  wife."  "Well,"  said  the  professor, 
"Socrates  was  married  too."  "Ah,  but,"  replied  the  stu- 
dent, "  Xanthippe  was  a  scold,  and  I  dare  say  ugly  at  that ; 
while  my  wife  is  both  beautiful  and  sweet-tempered." 
Laelius  was  last  but  one  in  a  family  of  twelve  children;  and 
would  seem  to  have  inherited  his  mother's  serious  loveli- 
ness of  disposition,  with  a  clear  and  sagacious  understand- 
ing that  led  him,  in  later  life,  "  to  scent  out  as  many  errors 
in  theology  as  he  lived  years.""  As  student  of  juri.spru- ^ 
dence,  he  "sought  its  true  source  in  the  Divine  fountains" 
of  Scripture,  and  was  early  drawn  into  those  questions  of 
the  Reformed  theology  which  then  attracted  all  the  boldest 
minds  of  the  day.  When  (to  copy  the  words  of  Camera- 
rius)  "  he  left  a  home  rich  in  wealth  and  dignity,"  to  become 

1  Mr.  Gordon,  in  tlie  Encyclopxclia  Britannic.i,  as  the  result  of  later  in- 
vestigations, treats  the  whole  story  of  his  flight,  with  the  attending  circum- 
stances, as  "  a  myth";  and  relates  that  his  attention  was  called  to  topics  of 
reform  by  Camillo  Renato,  a  Sicilian,  who  is  described  as  a  sort  of  Catholic 
Quaker. 

2  The  phrase  used  in  the  Life  by  Samuel  Przy])l\Owski  {-ccn'iiis),  one  of 
the  "  Polish  Brethren,"  whose  biography  of  the  Socini,  uncle  and  nephew, 
is  the  earliest  and  most  authentic  source  for  our  scanty  knowledge  of  them. 


L.KLIUS  SOCINUS.  5  I 

(adds  Maier)  "  an  exile  for  his  faith  in  Christ,"  he  was  not/ 
quite  twenty-two.^ 

His  candid  intelligence,  with  the  confiding  sweetness 
of  manner  native  to  him,  drew  forth  an  almost  unvarying 
tribute  of  personal  affection  from  the  leading  German  and 
Swiss  Reformers,  \'ery  rare  in  that  day  of  acrimonious  dis- 
putation. Bullinger,  the  wise  and  generally  broad-hearted 
successor  of  Zwingli  as  pastor  of  Zurich,  was  his  warm 
friend  from  first  to  last.  Melanchthon  wrote  of  him  to 
Maximilian  of  Austria,  afterwards  emperor:  "  His  diligence 
and  fidelity  are  such  that  he  might  well  serve  an  illustrious 
sovereign  in  embassies  and  in  many  otheV  afTairs;"  adding 
that,  by  the  reading  of  prophets  and  apostles,  he  has  been 
"  brought  to  worship  of  the  true  God  and  all  offices  of 
piety,  and  has  begun  the  study  of  Hebrew  with  a  burning 
zeal  for  sacred  learning."  "  Furthermore,"  writes  Bullin- 
ger, "  he  is  clear-eyed  {prudcns)  and  active,  worthy  whether 
to  teach  in  public  or  to  serve  some  prince  in  high  matters 
of  state."  "  He  is  a  man,"  adds  Auerbach,  "  most  accom- 
plished in  every  sort  of  merit ;  most  dear  to  me,  and  my 
best  of  comrades  "  {fait tor).  Maffinski,  one  of  the  group 
of  Polish  gentlemen  whom  he  met  as  fellow-students  in 
Germany,  reports  of  him  in  1550:  "I  am  ever  so  much 
{oppido  qnain)  delighted  with  his  gracious  company.  I 
honor  his  upright  character,  his  frankness  in  speaking  his 
mind,  with  his  learning  and  purity  of  life.  Not  only  I  but 
everybody  here  ioves  him  and  makes  much  of  him.  In  a 
word,  there  is  not  a  man  in  Wittenberg  who  does  not  seek 
and  prize  his  friendship."  His  scholar  friends  would  speak 
of  him,  playfully,  by  the  title  of  Cicero's  dialogue  on 
Friendship,  as  "  Laelius,  sive  de  Aviicitidy 

1  These  citations,  with  those  which  immediately  follow,  are  copied  from 
"  Die  I'rotestantisclien  Aiititrinitarier  vor  Fausto  Socin,"  by  F.  Trechscl,  a 
pa.stor  near  Berne,  who  has  given,  largely  from  manuscript  sources,  our  only 
detailed  portraiture  of  the  man. 


52  THE    L^NITARIANS.  [CiiAr.  in. 

Almost  the  only  discordant  note  in  this  singular  har- 
mony of  praise  appears  to  be  from  the  uneasy  jealousy  of 
two  of  his  own  countrymen — Celso  Martinengo,  who  had 
been  stung  by  some  freedom  in  a  young  Italian,  an  asso- 
ciate of  Laelius,  and  that  acrid  busybody,  Peter  Paul  Ver- 
gerio.  These  two  convey  to  Bullinger  their  "  grave  sus- 
picion of  him,  that  he  favors  the  opinion  of  Arius,  Servetus, 
and  the  Anabaptists,  and  does  not  acknowledge  or  sincerely 
profess  adoration  of  the  holy  Trinity."  Calvin,  too,  with 
whom  he  has  been  on  terms  of  friendly  communication, 
writes  to  him  in  1552  :  "I  am  very  sorry  that  the  generous 
intelligence  which  the  Lord  has  bestowed  on  you  should 
busy  itself  vainly  upon  matters  of  no  account."  He  adds 
the  warning,  which  some  have  taken  as  a  threat :  "  Unless 
you  quickly  cure  this  itch  of  questioning,  it  is  to  be  feared 
that  you  will  bring  upon  yourself  heavy  sufTerings."  It  is 
to  the  credit  of  both,  that  this  sharp  hint  did  not  sever  the 
good-will  between  them  ;  and  that,  in  spite  of  yet  graver 
differences,  the  good  offices  of  Bullinger  kept  them  friends 
to  the  end. 

The  story  of  his  life  for  the  fifteen  years  after  leaving 
Italy  is  easiest  told  by  m'Srking  it  in  three  portions,  divided 
by  two  visits  to  his  native  land.  Speaking  generally,  he  is 
to  be  known  in  the  first  of  these  as  the  eager  and  restless 
inquirer ;  in  the  second,  as  the  courteous  and  candid  dis- 
putant ;  in  the  last,  as  the  recluse  student  and  thinker,  with 
a  probable  tendency  to  lines  of  more  radical  speculation. 
But  he  is  never  a  man  of  clear  positive  thought,  or  an 
active  propagandist.  Winning  and  ingenuous,  he  sought 
and  found  friends  in  the  several  local  circles  of  the  Refor- 
mation. He  discusses  with  Calvin  in  Geneva  the  physical 
difficulties  involved  in  a  resurrection  of  the  body.  He 
takes  part  at  Basel  with  Myconius,  whose  "  Confession  " 
has  brought  a  larger  tolerance  among  the  Reformers  than 


LyELIUS   SOCIXUS.  53 

the  "  Consensus  "  touching  the  Eucliarist  had  succeeded  in 
getting  accepted  in  Zurich.  In  1550  he  is  a  student  with 
Melanchthon  at  Wittenberg,  an  associate  among  the  group 
of  young  Polish  gentlemen,  who- brought  (it  would  seem)  a 
breath  of  freer  inquiry  along  with  their  fresh  out-door  air 
into  the  ancient  precincts  of  university  life.  By  their  per- 
suasion, perhaps,  or  moved  by  the  wish  to  \isit  a  field 
where  the  Reformation  itself  was  new, — "to  break  the 
crust  "  (says  Trechsel)  that  began  to  gather  round  it  in  its 
old  Saxon  home, — he  went  for  a  short  stay  to  Poland,  pass- 
ing on  his  way  through  Vienna  and  Prague,  those  spots  so 
full  of  political  and  religious  memories,  and  thence  to  the 
great  university  town  of  Cracow.  Returning  in  the  autumn 
of  155  I,  he  found  himself  again  at  Zurich,  warmly  intercstetl 
in  the  affair  of  Rolsec>  a  P'rench  Protestant  who  had  dared 
to  dispute  with  Calvin  his  rigid  doctrine  of  Predestination, 
and  so  was  in  exile  from  Gene\'a.  He  engages,  besides,  in 
earnest  correspondence  with  a  new  friend,  Walter,  on  the 
true  meaning  of  penitence,  pardon,  and  the  Divine  decree. 

Partly,  perhaps,  to  shun  the  stringent  air  of  controversy, 
he  set  out  in  the  following  spring  for  a  \'isit  to  Itcdy, 
which  extended  to  a  nearly  two  years'  stay.  But  he  was 
chiefly  moved  by  the  new  hope  that  seemed  to  dawn  there. 
His  native  Siena  had  lately  made  itself  independent,  by 
help  of  a-  French  alliance.  The  power  of  the  Inquisition 
had  just  received  a  check,  and  for  a  time  it  looked  as  if  a 
new  day  of  lilicrty  miglit  open  to  the  old  Italian  republics. 
We  fmd  him,  again,  at  Padua,  \-isiting  his  father  in  Bologna, 
lingering  through  most  of  the  following  year  at  Siena.  But 
what  seemed  dawn  had  (says  the  historian)  proved  to  be 
only  twilight :  the  day  of  freedom  to  the  Italian  republics 
was  past.  With  whatever  of  disappointment,  he  was  again 
in  Switzerland  in  January,  at  Geneva  in  the  spring,  of  1554. 

Here  the  air  was  full  of  the  agitati(Mi,  still  fresh,  follow- 


54  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  hi. 

ing  the  death  of  Servetus  six  months  before.  Calvin's  de- 
fense of.  that  act  had  led  the  way  to  new  disputes.  Laelius, 
all  whose  sympathies  ran  the  other  way,  was  now  drawn  to 
Calvin,  it  has  been  said,  ^  by  the  attraction  of  opposites." 
He  did  not,  it  is  true,  share  the  passionate  resentment  of 
some  of  his  countrymen,  or  break  openly  with  Calvin.  His 
feeling  on  the  subject  was,  however,  well  enough  known. 
He  was  charged  with  being  the  real  author  of  a  vigorous 
pamphlet  in  French,  published  under  the  name  of  Martin 
Bellie,  which  gathered  up,  said  its  critics,  a  mess  {farrago) 
of  arguments  from  the  ancient  church  and  from  modern 
Reformers,  to  prove  that  spiritual  error  should  be  met  only 
by  weapons  of  the  Spirit :  the  secular  power,  it  said,  is  not 
competent  to  deal  with  heresy.  There  was  no  need  to 
defend  or  to  attack  the  opinions  of  Servetus.  His  books 
had  been  too  thoroughly  destroyed,  was  the  complaint,  for 
any  one  to  find  out  what  they  were. 

It  was  a  time  fruitful  of  controversy.  So  far  as  L.xlius 
proved  himself  a  combatant  at  all,  it  was  at  this  period  of 
his  life.  Early  in  1554  he  argues  with  his  friend  Bullinger 
on  Divine  grace  and  the  efficacy  of  sacraments :  he  will 
hardly  grant  that  the  "  seal  "  of  Gcxl's  promise  can  be  an 
act  performed  by  man ;  his  logic  will  not  accept  the  mys- 
tery which  in  the  view  of  the  Genevan  school  enshrines 
the  act.  In  this  same  year,  again,  the  implacable  tyranny 
of  Rome  compelled  the  Protestant  inhabitants  of  Locarno 
to  choose  between  their  home  and  their  faith.  It  was 
hard  to  say  which  were  the  more  wretched,  those  who 
abased  themselves  to  forsake  that  faith  and  submit  to  the 
contemptuous  tolerance  offered  them,  or  those  who  for 
the  sake  of  it  were  driven  homeless  into  the  inclemency 
of  wintry  and  northern  skies.  A  congregation  formed  ten 
years  before  by  Italian  fugitives  from  the  Inquisition  had 
been  hospitably  received  in  Zurich,  whom  the  new  exiles 


L^ELIUS  SOCINUS.  55 

now  joined  ;  and  to  them  Ochino,  lately  back  from  Eng- 
land, was  appointed  preacher.  Laelius  was  soon  on  friendly- 
terms  with  him  ;  and  it  was  now  that  Martinengo  and  Ver- 
gerio  whispered  their  doubts  of  his  soundness  in  the  trini- 
tarian  faith.  Again,  the  next  year  (1555)  a  discussion  fol- 
lowed between  him  and  a  friend  named  Wolf,  respecting 
the  Trinity  and  the  personality  of  the  Holy  (jhost.  Here- 
it  appeared,  not  that  he  had  expressed  denial  of  the  doc- 
trine, but  that  he  would  not  pledge  assent  to  any  state- 
ment of  it  that  could  not  be  put  in  the  words  of  Scripture. 
Bullinger,  still  true  to  his  friend,  succeedetl  in  turning  aside 
the  current  of  suspicion  and  ill-will  that  set  against  him, 
and  even  soothed  Calvin's  irritable  mood  so  far  as  the 
person  of  Lrelius  was  concerned.  But  from  this  lime  on 
we  hear  no  more  of  his  engaging  in  controversy.  He 
kept  his  opinions  more  and  more  to  himself.  Whatever 
shape  he  may  have  given  them  in  his  private  writings, 
they  are  to  be  gathered  chiefly  from  the  works  of  his 
nephew,  who  regarded  himself  as  his  natural  heir  and  liter- 
ary executor. 

Meanwhile,  events  were  calling  him  once  more  into 
Italy.  In  this  year  (1555)  Siena  had  surrendered  after  a 
long  struggle,  to  be  soon  after  turned  over  to  the  domina- 
tion of  Florence.  The  next  year  his  father  died  at  Bologna, 
leaving  the  family  estate  in  a  condition  that  needed  attend- 
ing to.  In  the  general  danger  and  disturbance,  powerful 
friends  were  required  to  make  the  journey  practicable.  In 
1558,  after  a  friendly  reception  from  Calvin  in  Geneva, 
and  fortified  by  letters  from  Melanchthon  to  Maximilian, 
he  went  again  by  way  of  Austria  into  Poland,  where  he 
passed  six  months  among  the  now  vigorous  and  influential 
party  of  the  Reformers.  Letters  from  Maximilian  and 
from  King  Sigismund  insured  his  personal  safety,  perhaps 
under  a  diplomatic  commission,  during  his  short  stay  in 


56  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  hi. 

Italy  the  following  spring.  But  his  correspondence  had 
brought  the  ill  repute  of  heresy  upon  his  father's  house. 
The  family  estate  was  confiscated  to  the  Inquisition.  Of 
his  brothers,  some  were  cast  into  prison,  while  two,  with 
their  nephew  Faustus,  then  a  youtlT  of  twenty,  made  their 
escape  into  France.  Laelius  returned  to  Zurich  in  August, 
to  live  a  little  longer  there  in  poverty  and  seclusion, 
cheered  now  and  then  by  visits  from  his  nephew  (then  a 
student  of  law  in  Lyons),  whom,  it  is  likely,  he  made  the 
sharer  of  his  more  private  thoughts.  He  died  on  the  14th 
of  May,  1562,  at  the  age  of  thirty-seven.  "Not  one  of 
his  many  former  friends,"  says  Trechsel,  "  bade  him  good 
cheer  when  he  went  home  to  the  land  of  Vision — he 
whose  lot  it  had  been  to  bear  so  heavy  a  burden  here  be- 
low, seeing  not  and  yet  believing." 

Faustus  Socinus,  to  whom  we  may  henceforth  give  the 
family  name  he  is  known  by  in  history,  was  now  at  the 
age  of  twenty-three.  He  held  the  memory  of  his  uncle 
in  peculiar  love  and  veneration ;  and  (it  is  likely),  to  pro- 
tect his  good  name  and  take  in  charge  his  literary  be- 
quests, went  at  once,  on  learning  his  death,  to  Zurich. 
Whether  he  gave  up  the  hope  of  such  a  reformation  as 
they  had  looked  forward  to  together,  and  seriously  meant 
to  reconcile  himself  with  Rome,  is  not  clear.  At  all 
events,  he  made  friends,  as  Servetus  had  done,  of  those  in 
authority  under  Roman  rule.  He  recovered  something  of 
his  inheritance,  and  was  for  twelve  years  a  diligent,  ser- 
viceable, and  valued  official  under  Cosmo  de'  Medici, 
Archduke  of  Florence,  in  service  of  his  daughter  Isabella. 
He  was  a  man  of  harder,  firmer,  and  probably  more 
worldly  temper  than  Laelius;  the  son  of  an  elder  brother, 
Alexander,  who  died  when  he  was  yet  a  child  not  three 
years  old,  so  that  he  laments  the  loss  of  parents  and  the 
lack  of  early  instruction.      Against  this  his  biographer  sets 


FAUSTUS  SOCIXUS.  57 

the  advantage  of  ha\-ing  had  no  training  in  dogmatic  theol- 
ogy, and  little  of  the^ school  logic. 

Till  the  age  of  twenty-three,  his  studies  were  chiefly  of 
letters  and  jurisprudence.  Laelius  had  rather  hinted  than 
taught  his  own  opinions ;  and  it  was  as  a  man  of  thirty- 
five,  after  his  twelve  years'  residence  at  court,  that  he  took 
the  resolution  once  for  all  to  de\ote  his  life  to  the  study 
and  defense  of  truth  (1574).  The  death  of  his  patroness 
Isabella,  strangled  by  her  husband,  may  have  quickened 
his  resolve,  though  he  withstood  the  generous  urgency  of 
Francesco  that  he  should  remain  in  the  archducal  service ; 
his  property,  at  all  events,  was  secured  to  him  so  long  as 
his  name  should  not  be  given  out  as  the  author  of  heretical 
writings.  He  was  cordially  received  at  Basel,  where  he 
passed  three  years  in  study.  Being  guided,  as  he  frankly 
declared,  by  the  writings  and  hints  of  Laelius,  he  now 
stood  ready  to  declare  and  maintain  his  views.  This  he 
did  in  a  little  treatise  on  the  nature  and  ofifice  of  Christ, 
published  without  concealment,  but  without  his  name  in' 
the  title. 

,  It  is  well  here  to  make  as  clear  as  we  can  what  was  the 
jnature  of  the  task,  and  what  were  its  conditions,  as  they  lay 
'before  his  mind  at  the  date  we  have  now  reached  (1578). 
The  younger  Socinus  has  held  in  history  the  unenviable 
reputation  of  being  the  leader  in  a  theological  movement 
blankly  if  somewhat  evasively  rationalistic,  which,  so  far  as 
I  it  went,  altered,  if  not  destroyed,  the  very  substance  of  the 
; Christian  faith  as  this  had  hitherto  been  held.  It  is  cer- 
tainly not  true  that  he  intended  any  such  result.  And  it 
is  only  by  ignorance  or  misunderstanding  that  the  Unita- 
rian movement  which  has  followed  since  his  day  has  been 
so  persistently  called  by  his  name.  The  misunderstanding- 
has  been  alike  unjust  to  him  and  to  it. 

To  see  what   his  thought   really  was,  we  must  bear  in 


58  THE    UNITAKIAXS.  [Chap.  hi. 

mind  that  the  Reformation  was  now  more  than  half  a  cent- 
ury past  its  reaction  from  that  radical  revolt  which  was  the 
first  response  from  the  German  people  to  Luther's  sono- 
rous appeal.  It  had  had  its  own  record  of  strifes  and  divi- 
sions. It  had  attempted  by  blood  and  fire  to  suppress 
heresies  in  its  own  fold.  It  had  become  crystallized  in 
sects.  It  had  grown  to  be  a  recognized  power  in  shaping 
the  policy  of  a  great  kingdom  like  England,  and  in  main- 
taining a  revolt  like  that  of  Holland  against  the  strongest 
of  military  monarchies.  As  a  political  power,  too,  it  had 
secured  terms  of  independence  in  the  Peace  of  Augsburg 
(1555).  which  lasted  down  to  the  great  convulsion  of  the 
Thirty  Years'  War.  Meanwhile,  its  intellectual  foundation 
was  as  unsettled  as  ever.  Theology,  in  the  futile  debates 
of  Flacius  and  Osiander,  was  beginning  to  wander  in  the 
field  of  metaphysics.  Practically,  the  Reformation  at  this 
period  exhibits  itself  as  a  moral  force  of  prodigious  energy, 
which  we  see  in  such  examples  as  the  Huguenots  of  France 
and  in  the  heroic  revolt  of  the  Netherlands,'  but  distracted 
and  unorganized,  except  where  compacted  by  the  rigor 
of  Calvinism  ;  while  the  Lutheran  church  and  state  were 
almost  neutral  in  the  struggle  on  which  its  very  life  was 
staked.  The  only  appeal  that  could  be  taken,  where  the 
party  of  Reform  was  so  helplessly  divided  against  itself, 
was  to  the  tribunal  of  reason — reason,  that  is  to  say,  for- 
tified and  enlightened  by  a  fresh  critical  study  of  the 
Scriptures,  the  one  recognized  court  of  appeal. 

The  Italian  Reformers  had  from  the  beginning  shown  a 
certain  logical  or  rationalizing  temper,  which  made  them 
in  a  degree  indifferent  to  the  arguments  that  upheld  the 
more  mystical  dogmas  of  the  German  theologians.  They 
accepted   the   Reformation  in   more  radical  fashion,  when 

1  The  great  defense  of  I.eydcn  was  in  the  year  before  .Socimis  ijiiitted  Italy; 
the  massacre  of  St.  Bartlioloincw  w  as  two  years  earlier. 


THE    TASK  OF  SOCIXUS.  59 

they  accepted  it  at  all.  The  supernaturalist  theory  of  the 
church,  remarks  Saisset,  rests  on  the  four  main  pillars,  or 
mysteries,  of  the  Trinity,  the  Creation,  the  Incarnation, 
and  the  Redemption.  It  was  the  last  alone — the  theory 
of  Redemption,  with  the  ecclesiastical  corruptions  that  had 
grown  into  it — that  made  the  point  of  attack  to  the  earlier 
Reformers.  All  the  others  they  were  equally  and  (as  we 
have  seen)  ostentatiously  prompt  to  defend..  In  the  martyr- 
dom of  Serxetus  they  had  testified,  even  passionatel)-,  that 
heresy  as  to  those  points  could  find  tolerance  with  them 
no  more  than  with  the  Inquisition  itself.  He  had  struck, 
boldly  but  unskillfull}',  at  the  entire  fabric,  aiming  to  sub- 
stitute for  it  a  metaphysical  structure  of  his  own,  which 
embodied  (as  he  held)  the  real  sense  of  Scripture.  What 
might,  perhaps,  be  done  by  studying  still  more  critically 
the  whole  system  of  dogma,  and  comparing  it  with  the 
word  of  revelation — to  be  interpreted,  this  time,  not  in  the 
light  of  a  traditional  creed,  which  after  all  rested  only  on 
a  damaged  church  authorit}-,  but  purely  by  the  educated 
common  sense  of  critics  ? 

In  attempting  so  much  as  that,  Socinus  really  opened 
the  way  that  led  straight  to  the  rationalism  of  a  later  day. 
The  process  was  ine\itable,  however  unintended.  And 
with  it  must  come  a  sure  narrowing  and  sterilizing  of  re- 
ligious thought ;  the  drying  up,  perhaps,  of  some  of  the 
l)urest  fountains  of  the  religious  life.  This  result  Socinus 
could  not  possibly  foresee.  He  was  not,  like  Servetus,  a 
man  of  religious  genius;  but  he  was  a  man  of  clear  con- 
victions, and  genuine  courage  of  his  convictions.  Still 
further,  these  convictions  rested  not,  like  the  later  ration- 
alism, on  postulates  of  physical  or  mental  science,  but  on 
what  he  accepted,  with  unquestioning  reverence,  as  the 
revealed  Word  of  God.  This  we  shall  see  in  his  unbending 
contention  against  the  rationalism  of  his  day,  as  represented 


6o  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  hi. 

by  Francis  David  (see  p.  64).  He  was  a  man  truly  relig- 
ious in  his  habit  of  thought,  capable,  as  we  shall  see,  of  a 
patient,  persistent,  even  heroic  faith,  such  as  belongs  to  a 
genuine  religious  leader.  If  dry  and  literal  criticism  of 
the  sacred  text  were  all,  his  service  would  not  merit  even 
the  dubious  honor  of  having  given  rise  to  a  new  form  of 
heresy.  Whether  he  was  clearly  conscious  of  what  he 
meant  or  not,  he  meant  something  more  than  this.  Cal- 
vinism, as  he  could  plainly  see,  had  come  to  be  a  j)Ower 
in  the  world  by  building  its  religious  theory  into  a  scheme 
of  positive  and  invincible  logic — invincible,  if  its  premises 
be  once  granted.  These  premises  were  found  by  a  pre- 
cise and  rigid  interpretation  of  Scripture.  But  what  if 
this  interpretation  were  a  mistaken  one?  What  if  the 
church  theory  of  the  Divine  nature,  which  Calvin  asserted, 
were  no  more  sound  than  the  church  theory  of  human  re- 
demption, which  Calvin  riddled  and  disallowed?  Might 
not  a  better  understanding  of  the  Word  open  the  way  to 
a  doctrinal  system  equally  clear,  positive,  self-consistent 
with  that  of  Calvin,  about  which  the  religious  life  should 
organize  itself  with  equal  vigor,  but  more  freely,  more 
humanely,  more  intelligently  ? 

All  this  may  not  have  been  in  the  conscious  thought  of 
Socinus  when  his  thirty  years'  life-work  lay  before  him ; 
but  it  may  have  lain  in  his  mind  vaguely  and  unshaped, 
as  a  dream.  It  seems,  at  any  rate,  to  be  the  proper  clue 
for  tracing  the  main  direction  of  that  work,  as  we  follow 
it  through  its  incidents  and  look  back  upon  it  as  a  whole. 
It  was  not,  properly,  a  work  of  speculation  or  of  dogma, 
like  that  of  Servetus.  It  was  a  work  of  criticism  and  of 
church  construction.  To  see  it  in  its  proper  bearings, 
we  must  look  back  first  to  the  defeated  and  paralyzed 
condition  of  liberal  theology  in  Switzerland,  its  home,  in 
the  years  since  the   trial  and   condemnation  of  Servetus. 


THE   SITU  ATI  ox  IX  SWITZEKLAXD.  6 1 

This  condition  is  best  presented  to  us  in  a  series  of  Italian 
names. 

The  ashes  of  Servetus,  said  Beza,  had  quickly  begun  to 
stir.  The  echo  of  his  name  came  back  to  Geneva  from 
beyond  the  mountains.  Matteo  Gribaldo,  a  jurist  from 
Padua,  had  been  a  member  of  the  Italian  congregation 
there  when  Servetus  was  put  to  death ;  and  he  at  once 
drew  upon  himself  the  wrath  of  Calvin  by  his  indignant 
condemnation  of  that  act.  He  further  followed  the  lead  of 
the  Spanish  heretic  into  speculations  on  the  Divine  nature, 
which  he  can  conceive,  he  says,  "  not  otherwise  than  as 
two  Gods,  the  one  deriving  his  existence  from  the  other." 
This  moves  the  scorn  of  Calvin,  and  we  find  the  rude  ad- 
versary proscribed  and  in  exile,  till  his  death  by  plague  in 
1564. 

The  story  of  the  eloquent  preacher  Bernard  Ochino 
we  have  already  heard ;  and  how  his  restless  pursuit  of 
the  flickering  light  of  religious  fancies  scandalized  his  fel- 
lows, and  brought  him,  in  1564,  to  exile  and  death  in  far 
Moravia. 

George  Blandrata,  a  Piedmontese  physician,  of  vigorous 
understanding  and  dominating  temper,  had  fled  in  1554 
to  Geneva  from  tiie  menace  of  the  Inquisition  ;  but  falling 
here  into  contro\-ersy  with  Calvin,  and  into  endless  disput- 
ings  about  the  proper  dignity  of  the  Son,  he  withdrew  first 
to  Zurich  and  afterwards  to  Poland,  where  we  meet  his 
name  a  few  years  later. 

Again,  we  find  the  name  of  Blandrata's  associate,  Paolo 
Alziati,  al.so  a  physician,  a  rude  "  campaigner  "  from  Milan, 
who  about  1556  disputes  in  something  the  method  of  Ser- 
vetus, asserting  that  the  man  Christ  Jesus  was  the  Wortl  in 
person,  and  that  all  of  Christ,  not  his  human  nature  only, 
died  upon  the  cross.  He  was  afterwards  acti\-e  with  lilan- 
drata  in  Poland. 


62  THE    UXITARIANS.  [Chap.  hi. 

Last,  Valentino  Gentile,  a  Calabrian  from  near  Naples, 
young  and  hot-headed,  was  found  (says  Calvin)  to  be 
"  giving  to  drink  dirty  water  from  the  Servetian  puddle," 
holding,  like  Arius,  that  Christ  was  a  subordinate  deity, 
the  created  Word  clothed  in  flesh :  the  trinity  of  Calvin, 
he  said,  really  meant  four  gods.  He  was  forced  to  recant, 
to  burn  his  own  writings,  and  to  take  oath  not  to  leave 
the  city  without  official  permit.  Tiring  of  the  restraint,  he 
escaped,  to  lead  a  wandering  life  in  France,  Poland,  and 
Moravia ;  was  captured  afterwards  in  Savoy,  and  sent  to 
Berne ;  and  here,  condemned  for  heresy  and  contempt  of 
law,  he  was  beheaded  on  the  9th  of  September,  1566,  at  the 
age  of  forty-six.  With  him  expired,  after  thirteen  years  of 
strife,  the  last  echo  of  the  controversy  stirred  by  Servetus 
in  Switzerland.  1 

Meanwhile,  from  the  year  1560,  Blandrata  had  gained 
great  influence  among  the  party  of  the  Reformed  in  Po- 
land. He  carried  this  influence  so  far  that,  at  a  synod  held 
in  1562  at  Pinczow,  he  brought  their  churches  to  decide 
that  "  all  disputes  regarding  the  trinity,  mediation,  or  in- 
carnation should  be  abandoned ;  all  expressions  unknown 
to  the  primitive  church  should  be  excluded  ;  while  the  clergy 
were  to  preach  the  pure  Word  of  the  gospel,  unaltered  by 
human  comment."  A  proposed  test,  that  those  who  main- 
tained the  subordination  of  the  Son  should  be  compelled 
to  resign  their  charge,  was  voted  down,  "  whereby  the  anti- 
trinitarian  bias  of  the  synod  became  evident ;  and  a  confes- 
sion prepared  by  Blandrata  in  the  very  words  of  Scripture 
seems  to  have  been  adopted  by  silent  assent."     (Wallace.) 

In  the  following  year  (1563)  Blandrata  went  by  invita- 
tion of  Isabella,  sister  of  the  Polish  king  and  mother  of  the 
young  prince  John  Sigismund,  into  Transylvania,  to  be- 
come the  court  physician   there.      In   this  post    he  found 

1  Caiitu  gives  tlic  names  of  tliirty-fivc  of  tliese  Italian  exiles. 


THE  NAME   "UNITARIAN."  63 

large  opportunity  of  guiding  the  course  of  the  Reformation 
in  that  valiant  principality.  He  soon  won  to  his  view  both 
Isabella  and  her  son,  who  till  the  end  of  his  life  was  a 
consistent  champion  of  religious  liberty.  A  still  more  im- 
portant ally  was  the  eloquent  preacher  of  the  Reformed 
doctrine,  Francis  David,  who  had  brought  the  seed  of  it 
with  him  in  1551  from  his  studies  in  Wittenberg,^  and, 
with  a  singular  repute  for  zeal  and  independence,  had  been 
since  1556  pastor  of  the  metropolitan  church  in  the  capi- 
tal city,  Kolozsvar  (Klausenburg).  By  one  account,  he 
had  retired  before  a  sharp  opposition  into  Poland,  whence 
he  returned  with  Blandrata.  Together,  their  labors  were 
so  efTective  that,  within  five  years,  the  privileges  they 
contended  for  were  officially  sanctioned  by  a  royal  char- 
ter, and  those  constitutional  rights  were  defined  under 
which  the  Unitarian  communion  in  Transylvania  has  con- 
tinued to  our  day.  The  more  detailed  narrative  of  these 
transactions,  with  their  results,  belongs  to  a  later  cliapter. 

Under  the  date  1568  the  name  "  Unitarian  "  appears  for 
the  first  time  as  the  recognized  title  of  a  religious  body. 
A  decree  had  been  passed  by  the  diet  at  Torda  in  1557,  and 
confirmed  in  1563  by  the  estates  of  the  realm,  securing  to 
persons  of  all  faiths  the  free  exercise  of  their  own  worship. 
"  Besides  this,"  says  the  Transylvanian  historian  Bod,  "  the 
various  religions  formed  a  union  together,  [pledging  them- 
selves] that  they  would  ntit  on  the  ground  of  religion  with 
mutual  hate  trouble  and  persecute  each  other.  From  this 
union  they  were  called  The  United,  or  Unitarian ;  such, 
nameh',  as  might  inhabit  the  kingdom  by  equal  right  with 
others  of  different  faith,  with  whom  they  should  make  the 
commonwealth  united  and  one.  The  name  was  retained 
by  those  who  confessed  the  Father  alone  as  the  true  and 

1  Or,  as  another  account  lias  it,  from  .Mtorf  in  Bavaria,  where  a  group  of 
"  Crypto-.Socinians  "  is  found  as  late  as  1617  (Zeltncr :    Leipzig,  1729). 


64  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  hi. 

eternal  [One],  and  was  voluntarily  adopted  by  them  ;  while 
those  who  asserted  three  persons  in  one  essence  were 
contrariwise  termed  Trinitarian^  ^  The  name  occurs  in 
a  narrative  of  David's  controversy  of  this  year  (1568)  with 
Peter  Melius ;  and  it  is  first  found  (says  Professor  Boros) 
as  the  recorded  title  of  a  legalized  religion  "  in  the  first 
article  of  a  diet  held  at  Leczfalva  in  October,  1600." 

Within  a  few  years  the  more  rationalizing  temper  of 
Francis  David  carried  him  beyond  his  associates  so  far  as 
to  deny  that  "  worship  "  of  Christ,  or  prayer  addressed  to 
him  in  person,  ought  to  be  allowed  in  the  ritual  of  their 
churches.  This  step  the  more  politic  Blandrata  urgently 
and  at  length  bitterly  opposed.  The  existence  of  their  re- 
ligious body,  barely  tolerated  at  best  under  political  changes 
that  had  come  to  pass,  seemed  to  be  at  stake.  Finding 
David  impossible  to  convince,  he  sent  in  1578  to  consult 
the  Swiss  liberal  leaders  at  Basel ;  and  here  Socinus,  with 
the  fresh  distinction  of  his  essay  upon  the  Trinity  (which 
Blandrata  is  said  to  have  seen  in  manuscript),  appeared 
to  be  the  man  best  fitted  to  make  a  last  attempt.  For 
five  months,  accordingly,  from  November  till  the  following 
April,  we  find  Socinus  in  Transylvania,  under  the  same 
roof  with  David,  vainly  endeavoring,  by  dint  of  argument, 
to  win  him  from  his  conviction.-     The  dispute,  after  being 

1  "  Historia  Hungarorum  Ecclcsiastica, "  bk.  ii.,  ch.  xvi.,  p.  413.  Peter 
Bod  (1712-69)  was  a  student  three  years  at  Leyden,  and  devoted  twenty- 
four  years  to  this  work.  A  very  fine  edition  was  publislied  in  Leyden  in 
1888.  This  history  is  very  hostile  to  tlie  Unitarians,  and  has  numerous 
defects  and  errors.  The  aljove  passage  is  copied,  witli  some  variation,  in  tlie 
Introduction  to  Rees's  translation  of  the  "  Racovian  Catechism"  (Long- 
mans, London,  1818).      The  Uiiiti,  of  1557,  were  not  Unitarian. 

<!  Their  respective  arguments,  as  drawn  uj)  in  eighteen  propositions  on 
each  side,  are  given  in  Wallace's  " Antitrinitarian  Biography"  (vol.  ii.,  jip. 
248-255).  Tlie  detailed  statement  and  defense  of  Socinus  may  be  found  in 
his  Works  (vol.  ii.,  pp.  709-766).  This  little  touch  of  personal  feeling  may 
be  worth  recording:  "As  for  my  living  in  his  [David's]  house,  this  was  no 
gratuitous  favor  from  him.  In  fact,  I  paid  a  very  high  board.  This,  it  is 
true,  was  afterwards  repaid  me  by  Blandrata;  for  he  had  invited  me  on  these 
terms,  that  he  should  be  at  all  the  expense  of  my  journey  and  stay  in  Transyl- 
vania "  (p.  711). 


SOC/.VCS   /.V   POLAXD.  65 

debated  (it  is  said)  befc^ie  a  packed  conference  under  dis- 
torted testimony,  was  referred  for  final  sentence  to  the 
prince,  Christopher  Ikithori ;  and  by  his  order  David  was 
cast  into  prison,  where  he  died  a  few  months  after.  The 
cruel  treatment  resultini^  in  Iiis  deatli  was  ascribed  by  his 
friends  to  the  vindicti\-e  temper  of  Socinus,  who  some  years 
later  defended  liimsclf  in  a  long  letter  addressed  to  the 
Transylvanian  clergy. 

His  defense  may  well  be  accepted.  It  was  clearly 
against  his  interest,  remarks  his  biographer,  granting  ever 
so  cruel  a  temper  in  him,  tliat  David  should  appear  in  the 
light  of  a  martyr.  Blandrata  returned  the  following  year  to 
Poland,  where  he  fell  into  difficulties  with  his  fellow-relig- 
ionists, whom  he  was  charged  with  betraying  to  the  Jesuits  ; 
and  about  ten  years  after  these  events,  having  (it  would 
seem)  reconciled  himself  meanwhile  with  the  Roman  Church, 
he  was  strangled  by  a  nephew,  impatient  of  his  inheritance. 

Socinus  was  now  established  in  Cracow.  The  work  for 
which  he  is  best  and  most  honorably  remembered  was 
done  in  the  twenty- fi\-e  years  between  his  controversy 
with  Francis  David  and  his  death.  The  key  to  it  is  found 
partly  in  the  grateful  memory  his  friends  kept  of  him, 
partly  in  the  Latin  folios  that  make  the  first  two  volumes 
of  the  "  Polish  Brethren."  '  Mo.st  of  the  argument  and  dis- 
quisition contained  in  this  obscure  collection  may  be  safely 
neglected  by  the  student  of  our  day.  We  need  not  hope 
to  make  these  dry  bones  live.  Rut  there  is  a  story  of 
tragic  interest  connected  with  them,  which  we  shall  have 
to  follow,  in  outline,  a  little  further  on. 

His  first  step  was  to  seek  the  good-will  and  win  the 
confidence  of  those  congregations  in  Poland  nearest  him  in 
faith.  He  would  ha\e  united  himself  with  them  from  the 
start;   but,  obstinate  in  their  Anabaptist  tradition,  they  re- 

'   "  r>il)liollicc:i   Fratrum    PolDiinriim,"  8  vols.     A  supplementary  volume 
indudcs  the  Life  of  the  Sueini  l>y  Samuel  I'rzypkowski. 


66  THE    UNITARIANS.  [CiiAi'.  ui. 

fused  him  because  he  would  not  be  rebaptized.  In  fact, 
rejecting  the  church  dogma  of  the  Fall,  he  held  the  rite 
itself  to  be  a  hurtful  superstition.  So  Servetus  had  held; 
and  we  find,  a  little  later,  that  the  practice  had  been  gen- 
erally given  up  by  the  Unitarians  of  Transylvania,  who, 
however,  observe  it  strictly  since,  as  the  formal  initiation 
into  their  church-fellowship.  Socinus  remained  true  to 
his  co-religionists,  notwithstanding;  he  stood  to  their  sup- 
port, promptly  and  ably,  when  their  rights  or  their  doc- 
trines were  attacked ;  and  before  long  they  received  him 
heartily  into  their  communion  on  his  own  terms. 

The  first  mischance  that  befell  him  here  was  when,  about 
1583,  his  defense  of  religious  liberty  was  misrepresented  to 
the  King  of  Poland  as  an  attack  on  royal  authority.  His 
political  opinions  taught,  or  seemed  to  teach,  the  unlawful- 
ness of  all  authority  resting  on  force,  and  of  capital  punish- 
ment in  the  repression  of  crime ;  and  in  this,  says  Bayle, 
he  seemed  rather  a  monk  in  disguise,  come  to  betray  his 
own  people,  than  an  exile  for  the  cause  of  the  truth.  He 
now  retired  for  some  years  to  a  provincial  town,  where  he 
married  the  daughter  of  a  country  gentleman  who  gave 
him  hospitaUty ;  and  here,  in  1587,  was  born  his  only  child, 
a  daughter,  Agnes  (his  mother's  name),  whose  descendants 
hold  a  place  of  honor  in  the  later  story.  ^  In  the  same  year 
he  fell  into  a  grave  sickness,  aggravated  through  grief  at 
his  wife's  death ;  a  little  later,  he  was  severely  straitened  in 
his  fortunes  by  loss  of  the  income  that  had  come  to  him 
hitherto  from  his  estate  in  Italy.-  Tb.c  chief  events  we 
meet  in  the  later  record  are  the  following. 

1  It  is  through  her  scm,  Andreas  W'lszowaty  {Wisso'd'aliiis),  that  we  have 
some  of  the  earlier  accounts  of  Lrelius  and  others  ;  a  grandson,  Andreas,  was 
preacher  after  the  exile  in  Klausenburg,  Transylvania;  a  granddaughter  mar- 
ried Samuel  Przypkowski  (several  times  cited),  the  most  eloquent  champion 
of  the  plundered  and  banished  Unitarians  of  I'oland.  (See  the  genealogy  in 
Bock,  vol.  iii.,  p.  686.     See  also  p.  92,  below.) 

2  See  above,  pp.  56,  57.  His  property  was  sequestered  by  the  Inquisition 
in  1590. 


THE   LAST  DA  YS   OF  SOCINUS.  67 

At  a  great  conference  lielcl  in  1588,  at  Brest  on  the 
Lithuanian  frontier,  he  appears  by  his  victorious  con- 
tention to  have  estabhshed,  once  for  all,  his  supremacy 
as  undisputed  leader  of  opinion  among  his  fellow-believers. 
But  the  greater  publicity  now  given  to  his  name  was  soon 
followed  by  the  story  of  the  griefs  and  persecutions  of  his 
later  years.  In  a  letter  addressed  from  Cracow,  October  7, 
1594,  to  a  friend  at  Wittenberg,  he  thus  relates  a  cow- 
ardly attack  made  on  him  in  the  streets:  "  I  was  seized  by 
a  trooper  who  shouted  out  that  I  was  an  Arian  who  had 
led  his  father  into  misbelief,  and  smeared  my  face  abomi- 
nably with  mud,  threatening  me  at  the  saijic  time  with  the 
thrust  of  a  musket."  He  got  ofT  by  pitiful  entreaty,  but 
was  waylaid  for  hours  after  by  a  ruffian,  who  (he  think.s) 
would  have  shot  him  through  with  a  bullet  but  for  impa- 
tience at  the  long  waiting.  The  story  (A  a  later  assault, 
which  brought  his  evil  fortune  to  its  extremity,  is  thus 
toUl :  ^  "On  Ascension  day,  in  1598,  a  mob  of  students, 
under  Jesuit  instigation,  thronged  the  streets  of  Cracow, 
tlragging  \-iolently  along  a  man  half  naked,  torn  from  his 
sick-bed,  amid  the  hootings  of  the  crowd.  His  books, 
papers,  and  manuscripts  were  plundered  from  him,  and 
burned  upon  the  market-place.  With  a  drawn  sword  over 
his  head,  and  death  by  fire  threatened  before  his  eyes,  the 
victim  cried  out,  '  I  retract  nothing.  W^hat  I  was  I  am, 
and  by  the  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  that  I  shall  be  till  my 
last  breath.  Do  you  what  God  j)ermits!'  This  man  was 
Faustus  Socinus,  then  fifty-nine  years  old.  His  last  words, 
six  years  later,  were :  '  W^eary  and  exhausted,  not  by  life, 
but  by  persecutions  and  hardships,  I  hasten  with  joy  and 
confident  hope  to  the  finishing  of  my  course,  which  assures 
me  of  rest  from  tnnihlc  and  recompense  of  toil.'  " 

1  Here  cojiicd  from  an  intcrestinii;  and  most  instructive  monograph  entitled 
"  Siebcnbiirgen  "  (Transylvania),  by  Professor  Rath:    Ileidelherij,  1880. 


68  THE    UXITARIAXS.  [Chap.  hi. 

In  person,  says  his  biographer,  Socinus  was  moderately 
tall,  with  prominent  forehead  and  fine  eyes.  "  He  was  ex- 
tremely self-denying  of  indulgences,  careful  of  his  health 
(which  suffered  from  stone  and  colic),  and  in  advanced  years 
was  disabled  by  dimness  of  sight.  In  manner  he  was  sim- 
ple, without  haughtiness  or  ostentation.  Courteous  and 
attentive  to  his  friends,  his  fault,  if  fault  it  were,  was  too 
little  self-regard.  Shall  we  say  that  he  had  more  of  intel- 
lect or  of  fire?  We  may  best  say,  a  naturally  hasty  temper 
kept  well  in  check,  with  great  patience  under  ill  treatment 
and  Ingratitude,  and  great  self-control.  His  meditation, 
he  thought,  sho.uld  not  be  on  death,  but  rather  on  the  life 
to  come.  Many  have  tried,  but  I  know  not  if  any  have 
equaled  him  in  virtue." 

These  are  the  words  of  one  (a  great-grandson  by  mar- 
riage) who  as  a  boy  of  twelve  may  probably  have  known 
him  in  person,  and  who  wrote  of  him  within  thirty  years 
after  his  death.  If  their  tone  is  that  of  panegyric,  as  has 
been  said,  at  least  they  are  words  in  praise  of  a  man  who 
surely  has  not  in  general  suffered  from  excess  of  praise. 
In  truth,  the  proper  fame  of  Socinus  has  been  obscured  by 
the  somewhat  narrow  and  dry  positivism  of  his  intellect. 
He  has  nothing  of  the  genius  and  passion  that  deepen  the 
tragic  interest  we  find  in  the  story  of  Servetus ;  little  of  the 
emotional  warmth  or  the  mystical  devoutness  so  familiar 
in  later  examples  of  the  Unitarian  faith.  We  are  rarely 
moved  or  touched  by  anything  in  his  style  of  thought,  or 
the  arguments  he  clothes  it  in.  Whatever  he  may  receive 
in  the  way  of  friendly  sympathy  will  most  likely  be  given 
to  the  few  heroic  or  tragical  passages  of  his  life,  But  for 
more  than  two  hundred  years  his  name  was  that  of  an 
acknowledged  religious  leader.  It  is  our  duty  now  to  seek 
in  his  writings  the  direction  he  gave  so  long  to  the  opinions 
of  his  successors.     Most  of  these  writings,  -indeed,  are  not 


riiE  WRiTixas  01-  socinus.  69 

constructive  or  independent,  but  rather  occasional  and 
polemic.  Our  interest  in  them  is  wholly  as  records  and 
way- marks  in  the  history  of  opinion,  not  as  containing  a 
doctrinal  system  of  any  present  weight  or  \'alue. 

In  examining  them,  we  are  first  of  all  struck  by  the 
childlike  and  almost  bald  directness  of  the  assertion — not 
argument — in  which  his  opinions  and  expositions  are  set 
forth.  For  Socinus  held,  says  Neandcr,  an  even  exagger- 
ated supernaturalism  ;  in  his  fundamental  positions  no  play 
whatever  is  allowed  to  human  reason.  It  is  as  if  they  only 
needed  to  be  stated,  to  command  assent.  There  is  little  or 
no  cumulati\'e  force  ;  little  or  no  expansion  or  enforcement 
of  fresh  thought  or  learning ;  only  the  weight  of  simple 
repetition,  in  a  tone  of  entire  good  faith,  such  as  sometimes 
has  the  best  possible  effect  in  the  assertion  of  moral  axioms. 
But  theological  propositions  are  not  moral  axioms ;  and 
the  effect,  we  must  confess,  is  mostly  weak.  It  is  so,  in  a 
marked  degree,  with  an  early  argument  on  the  authority  of 
Scripture — the  only  one  of  his  .writing  that  appears  to  have 
been  published  in  English.  A  still  better  example  is  his 
exposition  of  the  first  chapter  of  John's  Gospel,  which  runs 
somewhat  thus:  "  In  the  beginning"  is  at  the  opening  of 
the  Christian  dispensation  ;  "  the  Word  "  is  Christ,  as  (by  a 
sort  of  synecdoche)  declarer  of  the  word,  or  truth,  of  God ; 
"  the  Word  was  with  God,"  as  being  known  only  to  him 
until  the  bai)tism  of  Jesus;  it  "was  God" — which  is  here 
not  the  name  of  a  Person,  but  an  attribute  of  power,  author- 
ity, and  love  ;  "  the  world  was  made  by  him  " — that  is,  men 
were  by  him  created  anew  to  good  works ;  "  and  the  world 
knew  him  not"  as  the  author  of  this  new  life.  Such  a 
style  of  exposition  is  as  far  apart  from  the  philosophic  in- 
terpretation of  our  day  as  from  the  dogmatic  interpretation 
it  was  meant  to  displace.  No  wonder  it  has  stood  all  these 
years  as  a  butt  of  angry  contempt  to  the  dogmatic  theolo- 


70  THE    UNITARIANS.  [CiiAi'.  ill. 

gian,  an  example  of  shallow  incompetence  to  the  educated 
student  of  opinion. 

Again,  we  have  seen  that  Socinus  held,  just  as  positively, 
to  the  worship  of  Christ  as  a  Divine  Person;  and  we  natu- 
rally look  to  see  how  his  view  differs  from  that  of  Servetus, 
to  whom  Christ  is  the  true  God  so  far  as  he  can  be  known 
to  men,  and  yet  in  the  strictest  sense  a  man.  Socinus  is 
here  curiously  literal  and  rationalistic.  Christ,  he  holds, 
was  (to  quote  the  Apostle's  phrase)  "  obedient  unto  death, 
even  the  death  of  the  cross ;  ivJierefore  God  hath  given 
him  a  name  that  is  above  every  name,"  rewarding  him  (so  to 
speak)  by  an  official  divinity  since  his  resurrection  and  ascen- 
sion, commissioned  with  full  power  to  bestow  life  and  im- 
mortality, while  yet  our  own  brother,  who  can  feel  with  us. 
Christ  ascends  and  dwells  in  heaven,  he  says  elsewhere 
(p.  675),  before  he  begins  to  fulfill  his  office  upon  earth. 
It  is  thus,  as  a  delegated  representative,  or  official  deity, 
that  we  owe  him  homage,  just  as  we  should  to  a  royal 
envoy  as  representing  the  king's  majesty.^  This  is  what  is 
really  meant  by  Thomas's  exclamation,  "  My  Lord  and  my 
God!"  And  in  this  narrow  sense,  of  an  orthodox}^  all  his 
own,  he  felicitates  his  fellow-believers  on  the  prosperous 
advance  of  their  faith  in  the  last  thirty  years,  in  spite  of 
bigoted  obstructionists  on  one  side  and  "  semi-Judaizers  " 
(followers  of  David)  on  the  otlier. 

In  his  formal  treatise  on  the  Christian  Religion  he  gives 
us  this  fine  ethical  definition,  that  Christianity  is  "  the 
heavenly  doctrine  touching  the  way  of  eternal  life,"  which 
consists  in  obedience  to  the  Divine  law.  This  he  still  im- 
proves upon  in  the  abridgment  which  served  as  basis  to 
the  "  Racovian   Catechism,"  by  saying,  simply,  that  it  is 

1  Mr.  Gordon  plausilily  holds  that  this  interpretation  was  the  key  suggested 
by  Lrelius,  and  shows  how  readily  it  could  be  employed  to  justify  the  use  of 
orthodox  phraseology  in  another  than  tlie  iirthoddx  sense. 


THE  DOCTRIXE    OE  SOCJNUS.  J I 

"  tJie  ivay  set  before  us  to  eternal  life."  And  it  is  interest-  , 
ing  to  hear  him,  in  the  breadth  of  this  generous  definition,! 
call  upon  all  true  Poles  and  Lithuanians  "  to  unite  [against! 
their  spiritual  tyrants]  with  those  who  are  unjustly  styled \ 
Ebionites  and  Arians " — a  counsel  which  Protestants  of' 
that  day  were  fatally  slow  to  follow. 

Socinus  does  not  believe  that  human  nature  was  changed 
by  the  Fall :  before  it  man  was  mortal,  and  men  have  been 
naturally  capable  since  of  virtue,  freewill,  and  religion.  He 
therefore  finds  the  grounds  of  religion  in  human  nature 
itself,  and  not  merely  as  a  supernatural  gift  (p.  537).  The 
kind  of  satisfaction  demanded  by  Calvin's  theory  of  atone- 
ment, he  says,  cannot  be  made.  Still,  man  is  by  nature 
both  mortal  and  sinful ;  he  needs  regeneration,  change  of 
heart,  deliverance  from  the  bondage  of  death :  for  he  is  not 
of  immortal  essence  ;  a  future  life  is  the  direct  and  special 
gift  of  God.  That  Divine  gift  is  promised  as  the  reward 
of  penitence,  submission,  and  obedience ;  and  it  is  to  carry 
this  glad  message  that  the  Son  of  Man  is  sent,  his  ow'ii  res- 
urrection being  our  pledge  of  eternal  life.  The  unfaithful, 
on  the  other  hand,  do  not  suffer  torment  in  hell  hereafter; 
they  only  lose  their  portion  in  the  promise,  and  so  "  perish 
everlastingly."  These  points  of  dcKtrine,  with  their  truth 
and  their  limitation,  contain  the  substance  of  that  belief 
properly  called  Socinian. 

Tiiis  name  has  f)ften  been  employed  to  cover  all  forms  of 
Unitai"ian  I)elief.  Thus  Carlyle  uses  it,  in  disparagement, 
to  designate  a  theology  so  radically  hostile  to  it  as  that 
of  James  Martineau.  Such  celebrity  may  be  said  to  have 
been  fairly  earned  by  the  singular  influence  of  this  system 
in  shaj)ing  the  ojjinion  of  most  disbelievers  of  the  Trinity, 
especiall)'  in  ICngland,  during  the  century  that  followed 
Socinus's  death.  Put  in  truth  there  are,  and  have  been 
from  the  first,  three  distinct  types  (^f  antitrinitarian  opinion  : 


72.  THE    UNITARIANS'.  [Chap.  hi. 

namely,  the   Socinian,  which   has   been   briefly  described  / 
above ;  the  Ari^n,  which  was  held  by  many  eminent  divines  i 
in  the  Church  of  England,  and  by  most  of  the  early  Uni-  } 
tarians  in  America ;    and   the  Sabellian,  of  which,   in  the ,' 
period  we  have  now  reviewed,  Servetus  is  the  best-known ' 
type.      If  we  regard  their  more  recent  affiliations,  we  may 
say  that  the  Socinian  doctrine  led  most  readily  to  the  eight- 
eenth-century Deism  ;  that  the  Arian  most  easily  grew  into 
the  peculiar  form  of  religious  rationalism  more  prevalent 
fifty  years  ago  than  now ;   and  that  the  doctrine  of  Serve- 
tus most  natu^'ally  expands,  under  the  critical  science  of  our 
time,  into  the  highly  poetic  and  imaginative  symbolism  so 
characteristic  of  the  present  stage  of  religious  speculation. 

For  the  sake  of  a  clear  historical  understanding  of  our 
subject,  as  well  as  in  justice  to  the  great  variety  of  minds 
touched  with  the  Unitarian  opinion,  it  is  important  to  keep 
these  distinctions  in  view.  Probably  no  person  now  alive 
is  interested  to  defend  the  theory  of  Socinus,  as  such.  Its 
value  to  us  is  purely  historical,  as  marking  a  particular  stage  ^ 
in  the  evolution  of  opinion.  But  it  is  more  than  a  denomina- 
tional concern,  it  is  of  human  interest,  to  recognize  whatever 
was  honest  and  of  good  report  in  one  who  has  sufTered  so 
great  and  unmerited  obloquy — the  man  Socinus,  of  whom 
an  unfriendly  biographer  has  said  that  "  he  so  excelled  in 
the  loftiness  of  his  genius  and  the  suavity  of  his  disposi- 
tion, such  was  the  strength  of  his  reasoning  and  the  force 
of  his  eloquence,  so  signal  were  the  virtues  which  he  dis- 
played in  the  sight  of  all,  so  great  were  his  natural  endow- 
ments and  so  exemplary  was  his  life,  that  he  appeared 
formed  (as  it  were)  to  capture  the  affections  of  mankind."  ' 

1  Rev.  George  Ashwell,  "  De  Socino  et   Socinianismo  "  (Oxford,  1680), 
quoted  by  Wallace. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE    rOLlSII    BRETHREN. 

The  name  "Polish  Brethren"  is  more  commonly  given 
to  a  group  of  theologians,  especially  to  seven  whose  writ- 
ings, in  ten  Latin  folios,  make  up  the  body  of  exposition 
and  defense  of  the  Unitarian  doctrine  as  held  for  about  a 
century  in  Poland,  then  its  best-known  refuge  and  home. 
But  it  is  also  given — just  as  the  name  "  Bohemian  "  or 
"  Moravian  "  Brethren  is  given — to  denote  a  religious  com- 
munity having  its  peculiar  belief,  its  own  history  more  or 
less  eventful,  and  its  definite  place  in  that  larger  move- 
ment we  call  the  Reformation.  It  is  here  used  in  the  latter 
sense.  ^ 

Poland,  early  in  the  period  we  are  concerned  with,  was 
one  of  the  most  brilliant  and  powerful  monarciiies  of  Europe. 
Warsaw  was  "  the  Paris  of  the  East."  The  university  at 
Cracow  was  "  the  daughter  of  the  Sorbonne."  Coperni- 
cus, its  most  illustrious  name,  a  man  ten  years  older  than 
Luther,  whose  mind  reached  out  independently  in  mathe- 
matics, astronomy,  and  economics,  was  the  highest  in  the 
lists  of  science  at  his  day.  There  was  a  moment  in  our 
history  when  it  might  even  seem  as  if  the  firm  resistance 
of  one  man,  John  Zamoyski,  to  the  election  of  Henry  of 

1  Tt  is  so  used  by  our  chief  authority,  Krasinski,  "  Historical  Sketch  of 
the  Reformation  in  Poland"  (2  vols.),  vol.  i.,  p.  144.  Count  Krasinski  was 
a  delegate  to  London  from  the  short  lived  Polish  republic  of  itS^i,  and  was 
compelled  by  its  overthrow  to  remain  in  Eni^land.  His  work,  thouijh  col- 
ored by  prejudice  af;ainst  the  Unitarian  doctrine,  is  generous  in  spirit  and  of 
high  authority.      It  was  written  by  its  accomplished  author  in  English. 

73 


74  '^'^^^    UNJTARIANS.  .  [Chap.  tv. 

Valois  as  king  would  have  put  Poland  in  the  front  rank 
of  modern  powers,  with  a  clearer  assertion  of  religious  lib- 
erty than  was  found  anywhere  else  in  Europe ;  for  Poland 
had  never  been  closely  bound  up,  like  the  nations  farther 
west,  with  the  papal  system.  Just  before  the  Reformation, 
in  1500,  it  was  almost  equally  divided  between  the  Greek 
and  Latin  churches.  It  made  one  of  three  great  Slavic 
populations,  Bohemia  lying  on  the  west  and  Lithuania  on 
the  east,  nearly  allied  in  blood,  speech,  and  religious  sym- 
pathy. Its  political  constitution  gave  it  a  nobility  of  free- 
holders, very  numerous,  excessively  jealous  of  their  political 
equality,  independent  of  king  or  priest,  controlling  at  every 
point  the  sovereign  they  had  themselves  chosen,  calling 
their  state  a  "  commonwealth  "  down  to  the  time  of  its  dis- 
solution and  decay,  claiming  their  right  of  absolute  free 
choice  as  to  the  form  of  religion  that  should  serve  them 
best. 

Thus  the  land  lay  broadly  open  to  the  invasion  of  opin- 
ion from  every  side.  Its  conquests  in  the  east  included 
provinces  lying  close  to  the  heart  of  Russia.  Towards  the 
Black  Sea  it  touched  the  Tartar  hordes,  most  ferocious  of 
pagans,  and  included  a  formidable  population  of  Cossacks, 
zealots  for  the  Oriental  faith.  Along  the  Baltic  it  disputed 
its  frontier  against  Sweden  and  Prussia,  and  so  was  steadily 
pressed  by  a  strong  Lutheran  propaganda.  On  the  south- 
west, towards  Hungary  and  Moravia,  it  was  open  to  the 
advance  of  still  more  radical  opinion.  It  had  accepted  the 
Waldensian  doctrine  in  tlie  thirteenth  century  ;  had  fought 
the  Inquisition  and  heard  the  pope  called  Antichrist  in  tlic 
fourteenth ;  had  welcomed  the  doctrine  of  W'iclif,  and  by 
its  delegates  sided  with  John  Huss  at  Constance,  in  the 
fifteenth;  had  made  in  1450  its  proud  declaration  against 
arbitrary  power,  that  "  wc  suffer  no  man  to  be  imprisoned 
but  by  law";   and  at  the  diet   of   1459   had   considered  a 


THE  KEFOKMA'J'JOiV  LV  POLAND.  75 

plan  of  church  reform  outlined  by  twelve  specific  charges 
of  abuse  against  the  hierarchy.  Even  in  the  time  of  her 
deepest  degeneracy,  Poland  never  underwent  the  curse  of 
the  Inquisition.  Most  of  these  indications,  it  is  true,  touch 
only  the  ruling  class,  the  "nobility"  of  freeholders.  The 
body  of  the  people,  here  as  elsewhere,  were  doubtless  ig- 
norant, servile,  and  superstitious — a  class  the  Reformation 
could  never  reach. 

To  come  now  to  the  period  of  our  own  story.  In  1525 
the  Reformation  was  already  a  popular  demand  in  Danzig 
and  in  Thorn.  In  1539  the  diet  declared  complete  liberty 
of  the  press.  In  1548  came  a  colony  of  Bohemian  Breth- 
ren, already  beginning  to  be  known  as  Moravians,  most 
fervent  and  popular  of  Reformers,  who,  being  harassed  by 
the  priesthood,  found  quiet  and  hospitality  at  Thorn.  The 
next  year  a  body  of  students,  clamorous  for  greater  free- 
dom of  instruction,  being  expelled  from  the  University  of 
Cracow,  went  to  Konigsberg,  to  return  presently  as  con- 
firmed Protestants  in  faith.  In  1555  was  brought  about  a 
religious  union  (confirmed  by  the  Consensus  of  Sandomir 
in  1570)  of  the  Bohemian  Brethren  with  the  Genevan  party 
of  Reformers,  tlien  strongest  in  Lithuania,  under  the  lead  of 
John  Laski,  just  returned  from  the  "  Strangers'  Church  " 
in  London, — the  Lutherans  holding  sullenly  and  (as  it  later 
proved)  fatally  aloof.  In  1556  it  was  ordained  that  each 
"noble"  (landholder)  should  be  free  to  adopt  the  form  of 
religion  he  might  elect.  Finally,  in  1572,  the  advancing 
wave  of  religious  freedom  reached  its  highest  point  in  the 
declaration  at  Cracow,  then  the  capital,  that  Protestant  and 
Catholic  held  equal  rights  in  the  united  kingdom  of  Poland 
and  Lithuania — one  commonwealth,  since  the  Act  of  Union 
passed  three  years  before. 

We  have  seen  already  how  many  Unitarian  Reformers, 
hard  pushed  in   Ital)-  or  in  Switzerland,  found  hospitality 


^6  THE   UNITARIANS.  [Ciiai>.  iv. 

in  Poland.  In  1546 — the  same  year  with  the  society  at 
Vicenza,  where,  by  the  usual  account,  Laelius  Socinus  first 
appears — there  was  formed  in  Cracow  an  association  for 
religious  study  and  discussion.  Without  seeming  to  abjure 
the  Catholic  faith,  this  group  of  inquirers  developed  great 
freedom  of  opinion.  Here  the  trinitarian  dogma  was  first 
attacked  by  a  Friesland  Anabaptist,  Adam  Pastor.  We 
find,  soon  after,  a  society  of  "  Polish  Brethren  "  of  avowed 
antitrinitarian  doctrine,  under  a  native  leader,  Goniondski, 
having  as  early  as  1565  "  its  synods,  ministers,  schools,  and 
a  complete  ecclesiastical  organization."  At  a  synod  held 
on  Christmas  of  this  year  in  Wengrow,'this  body  brought 
together  "  forty-seven  ministers  and  eighteen  eminent 
noblemen,  besides  a  great  number  of  inferior  personages. 
...  A  letter  of  the  Transylvanian  churches  was  publicly 
read,  and  many  individuals  of  the  first  families  joined  on 
that  occasion  the  antitrinitarian  churches.  The  synod  re- 
jected the  baptism  of  infants,  on  the  plea  that  it  was  neither 
used  by  the  primitive  churches  nor  commanded  by  the 
gospel ;  it  was  not,  however,  positively  prohibited,  but  was 
left  to  the  conscience  of  individuals,  recommending  charity 
and  mutual  forbearance."  The  following  confession  of 
faith  was  published  in  1574:  "God  has  made  the  Christ 
(i.e.,  the  most  perfect  Prophet)  the  most  sacred  Priest,  the 
invincible  King,  by  whom  he  has  created  the  new  world. 
This  new  world  is  the  new  birth,  which  Christ  has  preached, 
established,  and  effected.  Christ  has  amended  the  old 
order  of  things,  and  granted  to  his  elect  eternal  life,  that 
they  might,  after  God,  believe  in  him.  The  Holy  Spirit 
is  not  God,  but  a  gift,  the  fullness  of  which  the  Father  has 
bestowed  upon  his  Son."  The  same  confession  forbids 
oaths,  lawsuits,  or  any  form  of  persecution,  reserving  to 
the  church  the  right  of  closing  its  doors  against  unrul}' 
members.      The    leader,    Goniondski,    maintained    further 


AXTITKIMT.INIAN   CONFKSS/OX   /.V   POLAND.  -J-J 

that  a  Christian  should  never  bear  arms,  nor  hold  any 
ci\il  office,  nor  use  a  sword.  In  token  of  this  opinion  he 
wore  a  wooden  sword.  He  also,  it  is  said,  held  to  com- 
plete non-resistance  and  community  of  <^oods.  This  relig- 
ious body  was  commonly  known  as  Anabaptist,  and  it  is 
sometimes  called  "  the  Lesser  Church  "  of  the  Reformers, 
being  excluded  from  the  larger  Protestant  League. 

We  notice  that  this  movement,  so  far  as  it  took  co- 
herent shape,  was  strictly  national  or  local.  It  may  have 
had  its  first  impulse  from  abroad.  Of  foreign  names,  we 
hear  those  of  Adam  Pastor;  of  Laelius  Socinus,  who  visited 
Poland  in  1551;  of  Ochino,  banished  in  1564;  of  Blan- 
drata,  whose  influence  has  already  been  described.  Except- 
ing these,  all  the  names  that  meet  us  are  Polish.  They 
represent,  too,  the  aristocratic — that  is,  the  most  distinctly 
national — class  in  the  kingdom.  This  circumstance  ac- 
counts at  once  for  its  early  strength  and  for  its  later  insta- 
bility as  an  element  in  the  national  life.  It  was  far  too 
exclusively,  from  the  first,  a  movement  of  scholars  and 
critics ;  far  too  little  a  movement  of  the  people.  It  per- 
ished, in  the  end,  at  the  hands  of  a  pious  mob  acting  as 
agents  of  the  popular,  the  official,  and  what  assumed  to 
be  the  national,  faith. 

The  confession  cited  above  was  published  five  years 
before  the  coming  of  Faustus  Socinus,  who  did  most  to 
organize  the  mox-ement  and  has  given  it  a  name  in  history. 
Its  time  of  chief  actix'ity  was  during  and  just  after  the 
twenty- five  years  of  service  he  gave  it  till  his  death,  in 
1604;  but  this  service  availed  only  to  keep  it  alive,  as  a 
pretty  vigorous  school  of  theological  opinion,  through  a 
period  while  Protestantism  itself  was  steadily  declining  in 
Poland,  under  the  crafty  and  most  iniquitous  oppression 
soon  to  be  described.  The  days  of  its  best  vigor,  and  of 
its   modest   contribution    to   the    general    thought    of  that 


78  THE    UXITARIANS.  [Chap.  iv. 

age,  were  the  fifty  years  before  the  fatal  blow  it  received 
in  1638. 

The  date  at  which  we  are  now  arrived  (1572)  brings  us 
to  a  crisis  in  the  political  as  well  as  religious  history  of 
Poland.  This  crisis  is  very  dramatic  in  the  persons  and 
incidents  it  brings  upon  the  scene,  and  it  will  be  convenient 
here  to  show  the  nature  of  it  by  a  brief  outline.  More 
than  any  other  one  thing,  it  served  to  bring  Poland  disas- 
trously to  the  front  on  the. broader  stage  of  European 
politics. 

By  a  singular  good  fortune,  the  course  of  the  Reforma- 
tion hitherto — that  is,  from  1507  to  1572 — coincided  with 
the  most  brilliant  period  of  the  Polish  commonwealth, 
under  the  two  Sigismunds,  father  and  son,  who  were  the 
last  kings  in  direct  line  of  descent  from  the  ancient  Jagello 
stock.  Though  faithful  Catholics,  they  were  just  and  God- 
fearing men,  as  jealously  guarding  religious  freedom  as 
every  other  political  right ;  rarely  deceived  into  sanction- 
ing, or  seeming  to  sanction,  acts  of  persecution  such  as 
were  elsewhere  common ;  but,  so  far  as  disputes  among 
Protestants  themselves  were  concerned,  hokiing  the  scales 
of  justice  even.  Their  wise  policy  made  the  "  Dissenters' 
Peace  "  {pax  dissidcntinvi)  one  great  glory  of  free  Poland. 
Their  most  eminent  counselor,  John  Zamoyski,  himself  a 
Catholic,  echoed  their  purpose  when  he  said :  "  I  would 
give  one  half  of  my  life  if  those  who  have  abandoned  the 
Church  of  Rome  should  return  willingly  within  its  fold  ; 
but  I  would  rather  give  all  my  life  than  sutler  any  person 
to  be  dragged  into  it  by  force." 

This  heroic  line  of  Polish  sovereigns  originated  thus. 
Ladislas  Jagello,  Prince  of  IJthuania,  a  barbarian  and  a 
pagan,  had  in  1386  accepted  Christianity  along  with  the 
crown  of  Poland  and  the  hand  of  the  Princess  Hedwig 
{Jadwiga),  only  daughter  of  the  last  king.      The  two  coun- 


THE   HOUSE    OF  J.  I  CELLO.  79 

tries  were  not  made  one,  however,  till  1569,  the  double 
sovereignty  having  thus  lasted  not  quite  two  hundred 
years.  This  was  the  period  of  the  growth,  the  conquests, 
and  the  political  glory  of  Poland.  The  kingdom,  at  the 
time  we  ha\e  now  in  view,  extended  along  the  13Iack  Sea 
and  the  Baltic,  rcacliing  to  the  cast  almost  as  far  as  Mos- 
cow, and  included  in  its  dependencies  the  Danubian  prin- 
cipalities, and  on  the  west  Moravia  and  Silesia.  All  the 
liberal  institutions  of  Poland — its  advance  in  science  and 
letters,  the  founding  of  its  chief  universities,  the  protection 
given  to  religious  liberty — belong  to  the  reigns  .of  this 
patriotic  royal  house.  It  was  further  closely  associated, 
and  had  allied  itself  by  marriage,  with  the  equally  ancient 
Lithuanian  house  of  Radzixill,  whose  chiefs  were  almost 
sovereign  in  their  own  principality,  and  were  for  three 
generaticMis  leaders  and  champions  of  the  Protestants :  in 
name,  CaK'inist  or  Genevan  ;  in  fact,  including  Unitarians 
as  well,  who  found  in  them  steady  protection  of  their 
threatened  liberties. 

Such  indications  naturally  stirred  the  jealousy  of  the 
ruling  church.  Sigismund  II.  (Augustus)  was  sharply  re- 
buked for  his  favor  to  the  Protestants  by  that  fierce  patron 
of  the  Inquisition,  the  pope  Paul  IV.  (1555-59),  earlier 
known  as  Cardinal  Caraflfa,  who  urged  him  to  a  bloody 
suppression  of  them.  But  this  he  steadily  refused.  The 
one  stain  of  persecution  upon  his  reign  is  the  burning  alive 
of  a  poor  girl,  Dorothy  Lazetska,  in  1556,  for  the  alleged 
guilt  of  selling  a  consecrated  wafer  to  the  Jews,  to  be  used 
in  their  incantations ;  and  this  was  brought  about  by  forg- 
ing his  name  to  the  warrant  of  execution.  Poland,  further- 
more, never  took  part  in  the  Council  of  Trent,  or  accepted 
its  body  of  decrees. 

At  the  death  of  Sigismund  Augustus  were  left  his  three 
sisters,  each  closely  connected  with  our  story.      Two  were 


8o  THE    UMTARIAXS.  [Chap.  iv. 

Catholics,  extremely  bigoted,  and  ruled  by  Jesuit  influence  : 
to  them  were  due,  indirectly,  the  calamities  of  the  reigns 
that  follow.  The  eldest,  Catherine,  Queen  of  Sweden,  was 
mother  of  a  third  Sigismund,  whom  we  shall  meet  hereafter 
as  "the  Jesuit  King"  of  Poland,  w^hose  long,  weak,  and 
disastrous  reign  (i 587-1632)  brought  about  the  downfall 
of  its  freedom  and  prosperity.  The  Princess  Anna,  by  a 
political  arrangement  to  be  'noticed  presently  (p.  84),  was 
acknowledged  queen  on  her  marriage  with  the  fighting 
prince  of  Transylvania,  Stephen  Bathori.  A  third  sister, 
Isabella,  we  shall  better  know,  with  her  son,  the  heroic 
John  Sigismund,  as  the  first  royal  Unitarian  convert,  and 
as  queen-mother  in  Transylvania.^ 

Until  the  death  of  Sigismund  Augustus,  in  1572,  the 
king's  "  election  "  had  been  only  the  formal  assent  given  by 
the  senate,  or  assembly  of  the  greater  nobles,  to  the  succes- 
sion of  the  eldest  son.  Sigismund  himself  had,  in  fact,  been 
so  elected  early  in  his  father's  reign,  when  a  boy  of  ten. 
His  'death  without  a  son  to  succeed  him  led  to  radical 
political  changes,  ultimately  fatal  to  the  commonwealth. 
Religious  parties,  on  whose  jealousies  and  ambitions  the 
choice  of  a  successor  was  likely  to  turn,  were  almost  equally 
divided.  A  bold  and  united  course  on  the  part  of  the 
Protestants  might  seemingly  have  put  the  control  per- 
manently in  their  hands,  and  made  Poland  an  equal,  ally 
with  England  as  first  of  Protestant  powers.      Their  petty 

1  The  following  table  will  aid  in  keeping  clearly  in  view  the  course  of 
events  we  are  to  follow.  The  reigns  of  Sigisimind  I.  ("  the  Great,"  1507-4S) 
and  Sigismund  II.  ("Augustus,"  1548-72)  are  followed  by  an  interregnum 
of  two  years.      Then  succeed  : 

1574.   Henry  ok  Valois,  son  of  Catherine  de  Medici. 

1575-86.   Stephen  Bathori,  husband  of  Anna  Jagello. 

1587-1632.   Sigismund  III.,  "  the  Jesuit  King,"  followed  by  two  sons: 

1632-48.    Ladisi.as  IV.      (See  i)age  89,  below.) 

1648-68.  John  Casimir,  ex-Jesuit  and  cardinal,  who  alxlicated  in  a  speech 
of  great  emotional  eloquence,  having  witnessed  the  ruin  of  his  country 
in  the  interest  of  the  church. 


rOJJSn  DIET  OF  1573.  8 1 

disputes  and  mutual  antipathies  made  this  wise  course  im- 
practicable. The  Catholic  party  were  quick  to  take  advan- 
tage of  their  disputes,  w'eakening  them  by  playing  off  one 
against  the  other;  while  the  exclusion  of  Unitarians  by  all 
the  rest  from  their  league  showed  how  vain  a  thing  it  was 
to  look  for  real  equality  in  affairs  of  state.  Their  best  hope 
was  in  a  Catholic  leader,  wise,  large-hearted,  and  upright. 
Such  a  leader  was  John  Zamoyski,  "  the  Great,"  a  Polish 
noble,  now  a  little  over  thirty.  Of  Protestant  birth,  but 
"  disgusted  at  the  quarrels  among  the  Protestants,"  he 
became  the  leader  of  a  reform  within  the  Catholic  Church, 
and  the  foremost  champion  of  political  freedom.  Void  of 
personal  ambition,  he  now  sought  only  to  make  the  choice 
of  a  king  as  popular  as  possible,  and  to  confirm  with  it  the 
absolute  security  of  equal  religious  rights. 

Two  errors  are  here  charged  to  Zamoyski :  that  he 
would  not  permit  his  own  name  to  be  presented  as  candi- 
date for  the  vacant  throne ;  and  that,  in  trying  to  popular- 
ize the  election  by  providing  that  all  ranks  of  nobles — that 
is,  all  free  citizens — should  take  part  in  it,  he  invited  those 
extraordinary  scenes  of  turbulence  which  have  made  the 
very  name  of  the  Polish  diet  an  astonishment  and  a  warn- 
ing. The  gathering  was  held  in  an  open  plain  near  War- 
saw, purposely  selected  in  a  region  hotly  Catholic,  and 
easily  reached  by  a  mob  of  petty  nobles.  "  There  were 
already  at  Warsaw,"  says  an  eye-witness,  "  many  armed 
gentlemen  and  many  lords,  accompanied  by  a  great  num- 
ber of  their  friends  or  vassals,  who  had  arrived  from  every 
part  of  the  kingdom.  The  plain  where  they  had  pitched 
their  tents,  and  where  the  diet  was  to  take  place,  had  all 
the  appearance  of  a  camp.  They  were  seen  walking  about 
with  long  swords  at  their  sides,  and  sometimes  they 
marched  in  troops,  armed  with  ])ikes.  muskets,  arrows,  and 
javelins.      Some  of  them,  besides  the   armed    men  whom 


82  THE    UNITARIANS.  [CiiAr.  iv. 

they  brought  for  their  guard,  had  even  cannon,  and  were 
as  if  intrenched  in  their  quarters.  One  might  have  said 
that  they  were  going  to  a  battle  rather  than  to  a  diet ; 
that  it  was  an  army  for  war,  not  a  council  of  state  ;  and  that 
they  were  met  rather  to  conquer  a  foreign  kingdom  than 
to  dispose  of  their  own.  It  looked  quite  possible  that  the 
affair  would  be  determined  rather  by  force  of  arms  than  by 
deliberation  and  votes. "^  A  large  array  of  fully  equipped 
and  mounted  men  was  on  the  plain.  In  theory,  any  one  of 
the  voting  nobility,  of  at  least  a  hundred  thousand,  might 
stop  the  whole  proceeding  by  insisting  on  his  individual 
vote.  It  is  to  their  great  credit  that  all  passed  off  without 
a  single  act  of  violence. 

The  candidate  of  the  more  rigid  Catholics,  an  Austrian 
prince,  had  suddenly  died ;  and  by  what  in  the  light  of 
history  seems  the  strangest  choice  the  election  fell  without 
dispute  upon  Henry  of  Valois,  younger  brother  of  the 
young  Charles  IX.  of  France.  Polish  fancy  had  been  ap- 
pealed to  by  the  eloquent  traveled  dwarf,  Krasowski,  in 
favor  of  the  "  fine  gentleman  "  from  the  French  court,  the 
youthful  hero  of  Jarnac,  who  would  surely  bring  with  him 
golden  days.  Grim  rumors  of  the  St.  Bartholomew  of  the 
year  before,  caught  up  with  joy  and  boasting  by  the  Jesuits, 
might  well  give  the  Protestants  pause ;  but  they  thought 
to  make  all  good  by  accepting  Charles's  assurance  that  this 
was  only  a  matter  of  local  police,  at  worst  an  unhappy  acci- 
dent. They  insisted,  however,  on  the  amplest  pledges  for 
the  security  of  French  as  well  as  of  Polish  Protestants.  An 
embassy  of  twelve  nobles  went  to  Paris  in  great  glory, 
"  with  coats  of  gold  embroidery,"  says  De  Thou,  "  in  grave 
majesty,  like  a  Roman  senate,  their  bridle-reins  studded 
with    silver,  with    gilded   housings  and  costly  decorations, 

1  Gratiani,  the  papal  envoy,  in  Krasinski,  vol.  ii.,  p.  24. 


UEXKV   OF    I'ALO/S.  83 

attended  by  hii;li-born  youths  in  silken  robes,  carrying 
bla/.ing  links  a  yard  in  IcnL^lh  "  (\ol.  ii.,  ]).  286). 

lleiny,  his  mother's  spoiled  darling,  lingered  while  he 
could,  both  mother  and  son  hoping  that  his  brother's  death 
might  give  him  a  more  shining  crown  in  Paris.  At  length, 
in  February,  1574,  he  consented  to  be  installed  in  Warsaw, 
and  to  take  the  solemn  pledge  required,  l^ut  his  Jesuit 
advisers,  it  was  well  known,  had  counseled  liim  that  "  no 
faith  need  be  kept  with  heretics."  Once,  when  he  seemed 
to  hesitate  in  the  course  of  the  solemnity,  a  loud  Protestant 
voice  was  heard,  "  Swear,  or  you  shall  not  be  king!  "  And 
the  weak,  dissolute  boy  did  as  he  was  bidden,  intending 
the  lie.  We  should  hardly  know  to  what  evil  depth  of 
craft  and  perjury  even  Jesuit  guile  might  descend  if  we 
had  not,  at  full  length,  the  advice  given  by  Gratiani,  con- 
science-keeper of  the  young  king.^ 

Before  many  days  were  past,  the  new  reign  was  already 
discredited  by  its  levities  and  extravagances.  Within  four 
months,  weary  of  his  exile,  Henry  heard  gladly  of  his 
brother's  miserable  death,  and  fled  away  from  a  night  ban- 
quet, close  followed  on  horseback  by  his  scandalized  sub- 
jects, who  pursued  him  as  far  as  the  frontier.  Not  to 
expose  themselves  a  second  time  to  like  contumely,  the 
Protestants  now  secured  the  choice  of  a  ruler  (as  they  be- 
lieved) of  their  own  persuasion,  under  the  political  arrange- 
ment before  mentioned.  A  delegation  of  twelve,  including 
a  single  Catholic,  was  sent  to  confer  with  Stephen  Bathori, 
reigning  prince  of  Transylvania,  who  accepted  the  crown 
on    the    terms    they    offered — marriage    with    the   elderly 

'  In  Krasinski,  "  Kifonnatioii  in  Poland"  (vol.  ii.,  ]>]i.  35-38);  also  the 
details  of  Jesuit  methods,  taken  from  a  Polish  Catholic  writer,  in  tlic  same 
author's  "  Religious  History  of  the  Slavonic  Nations"  (|>]i.  189-197),  with 
the  elaborate  instructions  given  to  tlie  ArchI)isho]i  of  KiolT  for  cajoling  the 
Russian  clergy  into  the  Roman  Church  {ifii(/.,  p.  201). 


84  1'^^^    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  iv. 

princess,  Anna  Jagello — leaving  his  own  principality  to  his 
brother  Christopher. 

Stephen  was  a  man  of  intelligence  and  force,  now  some- 
thing over  forty,  who  by  hard  fighting  had  risen  first  to  be 
chief  officer,  and  then  successor,  to  the  heroic  John  Sigis- 
mund.  His  bride  was  nearly  twenty  years  older,  and  a 
strict  Catholic.  He  was  supposed  to  be  a  Protestant — 
presumably,  a  Unitarian — of  inferior  rank,  as  she  doubtless 
made  him  feel.  A  father-confessor,  smuggled  in  by  the 
one  Catholic  envoy,  had  gained  his  ear,  and  too  easily  per- 
suaded him  that  he  should  find  peace  at  home  by  joining 
the  Roman  party.  To  the  alarm  of  the  other  delegates, 
Stephen  appeared  dutifully  at  mass  the  next  morning  after 
accepting  his  new  dignity.  Like  Henry  of  Navarre,  eight- 
een years  later,  he  professed  a  politic  change  of  creed — "  a 
crown  was  well  worth  a  mass," — happily,  without  change 
of  heart. ^  He  steadily  upheld  the  legal  rights  of  the  com- 
munion he  had  publicly  forsaken.  He  was  one  of  the 
heroic,  that  is  to  say,  the  fighting,  kings.  A  horrible  bor- 
der war  with  Russia,  forced  on  him  by  Ivan  the  Terrible, 
made  the  particular  field  of  his  achievement.  His  larger 
policy  was  shown  in  his  dealing  with  the  Cossacks  of  the 
Dnieper  (Zaporogian),  who  were  of  the  Eastern  faith ; 
whom  he  not  only  brought  into  order  and  subjection,  but 
organized  under  a  discipline  of  arms  that  made  them  loyal 
subjects  and  an  efTective  guard  of  the  frontier.  The 
hideous  ruin  brought  about  by  an  insolent  wantonness  that 
turned  them  into  most  vindictive  foes  will  meet  us  pres- 
ently. A  Latin  epitaph  on  Stephen  testifies  to  the  ex- 
traordinary veneration  in  which  his  name  was  held :  "  In 
church  more  than  priest,  in  state  more  than  king,  injustice 

1  I  follow  here  the  Polish  story,  as  told  hy  Krasinski  and  others.  The 
Transylvanian  account  makes  Stephen  a  Catholic  from  the  first;  but  at  least 
he  held  his  faith  very  lightly. 


SOCINUS  AV  POLAND:    THE   "  SOCIXIANS:'  85 

more  than  jurist,  in  battle  more  than  soldier,  in  friendship 
more  than  friend,  in  all  things  more  than  sage." 

In  this  period  we  find  the  greatest  activity  among  the 
Unitarians  of  Poland  in  establishing  their  faith.  Their 
new  leader,  Faustus  Socinus,  had  come  to  them  in  1579. 
Though  received  at  first  with  distrust,  he  gained  their  com- 
plete confidence,  and  at  length  complete  ascendency,  in  a 
long  series  of  conferences  for  the  fixing  of  their  creed  and 
discipline.  Since  the  position  taken  among  them  at  Pinc- 
zow,  in  1562,  when  Blandrata  had  prevailed  on  them  to 
discard  creed  for  Scripture,  they  had  been  commonly  called 
"  Pinczovians."  The  town  of  Rakow  {Racovia),  founded 
in  1569  by  a  generous  noble,  Sieninski,  came  to  be  their 
chief  headquarters,  with  chapel,  school,  printing-house, 
and  a  university  established  in  1602  ;  and  from  this  they 
were  more  widely  known  as  the  "  Racovian  "  sect.  But 
the  great  influence  of  Socinus  has  given  them  the  perma- 
nent title  "  Socinian,"  by  which  alone  they  have  a  place 
in  history.  Their  story  is  an  episode  in  the  great  political 
tragedy  now  about  to  be  displayed. 

At  the  death  of  Stephen  Bathori,  in  1587,  religious  par- 
ties were  again  about  equally  divided.  Each  in  due  form 
now  chose  its  own  candidate  to  the  throne.  Maximilian 
of  Austria  was  elected  by  a  coalition  between  the  pajjal 
legate  and  the  Lutherans;  while  Sigismund,  crown-prince 
of  Sweden,  son  of  Catherine  Jagello,  was  chosen  by  the 
"national"  party,  prompted  (it  is  said)  by  his  aunt  Anna, 
the  aged  widow-queen.  Threatening  disorders  were  put 
down  by  the  strong,  quick  hand  of  Zamoyski,  the  general- 
in-chief,  who  ended  the  contest  by  taking  Maximilian  pris- 
oner after  a  sharp  battle,  and  Sigismund  was  accepted 
without  dispute.  He  had  been  brought  up  nominally  a 
Lutheran,  but  really,  under  his  mother's  influence,  as  a 
Catholic  of  the  strictest  creed,  looking  to  receive  the  crown 


86  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chai-.  iv. 

of  Poland  in  due  course.  When  he  succeeded  later  to  that 
of  Sweden,  his  preference  of  Polish  ways  was  so  open  and 
offensive  that  in  1604  he  was  deposed  from  the  northern 
kingdom,  and  continued,  what  he  prided  himself  on  being, 
the  "Jesuit  King"  of  Poland. 

It  is  now  that  the  name  "Jesuit"  begins  to  show  its 
malign  and  disastrous  meaning  in  our  story.  As  early  as 
1567,  to  stay  the  advance  of  religious  liberty,  an  appeal 
had  been  made  for  a  missionary  colony  of  that  order  in 
Poland.  This  was  strongly  urged  by  Cardinal  Hosen 
{Hosius),  a  prelate  of  every  ecclesiastical  merit,  but  with 
no  one  virtue  of  a  true  citizen  or  an  honest  man  ;  the  same 
who  counseled  Henry  of  Valois  to  break  his  oath  on  the 
cynical  ground  that  "  no  faith  is  to  be  kept  with  heretics." 
He  soon  succeeded  in  founding  a  Jesuit  establishment, 
fully  equipped  for  the  evil  task  of  the  eighty  years  that 
followed. 

The  first  grave  warning  of  disaster  was  an  armed  and  (it 
is  declared)  constitutional  revolt  {Rokosh)  in  1605,  break-  • 
ing  out  at  Lublin,  in  the  south,  which  seems  not  to  have  \ 
been  wholly  suppressed  for  about  three  years.  The  war  ' 
against  religious  liberty  was  followed  up  in  four  several  ; 
ways.  First  were  individual  cases  of  suppression  or  per-  s 
secution,  sometimes  most  atrocious:  in  161 1,  for  example,  i 
a  village  "  syndic,"  or  treasurer,  a  Unitarian,  John  Tysco-  i 
witz,  declining  to  swear  by  the  crucifix  and  casting  it  to 
the  ground  as  an  emblem  of  superstition,  had  his  tongue  \ 
torn  out,  his  hands  and  feet  chopped  off,  and  was  then  \ 
burned  at  the  stake,  Sigismund,  it  is  said,  consenting  to  j 
this  horror  only  under  strong  pressure  from  his  queen.  ' 
Second,  the  populace  were  stirred  to  a  fierce  intolerance,  so  / 
that  the  Protestant  strength  was  broken  by  a  long  series  \ 
of  riots,  in  which  Unitarians  were  the  first  to  suffer — at  | 
Cracow  in    1598,  at  Lublin  in    1627,  at   Rakow  in    1638,   1 


THE  JESUIT  POLICY.  87 

and  at  length  the  horrors  of  1660  \  but  all  religious  freedom 
eventually  perished.  Third,  the  stricter  Protestant  sects 
were  enticed  into  consent  with  the  policy  of  crushing  the 
more  liberal  (as  in  the  barbarous  destruction  at  Rakow  in 
1638),  till  their  own  doom  came,  less  than  a  century  later, 
in  1733.^  Fourth,  the  master-stroke  of  this  policy  was 
achieved  by  taking  in  hand,  through  court  influence  and 
all  pretensions  of  superior  skill,  the  training  of  the  sons  of 
higher  families,  in  which  office  they  found  their  chief  rivals 
in  some  of  the  Unitarian  schools. 

This  last  was  carried  out  with  the  peculiar  subtlety  and 
skill  known  only,  in  its  perfection,  to  Jesuit  seminaries. 
The  best  thing  it  did  (as  once  remarked  of  it)  was  to 
give  the  Polish  nobility  a  fluent  smattering  of  bad  Latin — 
an  accomplishment  of  which  they  were  very  vain.  The 
method,  well  understood  if  not  openly  avowed,  was  to  sap 
the  vigor  of  the  young  mind  by  keeping  it  through  all  its 
best  years  in  a  state  of  pupilage.  To  do  this  the  more 
eff"ectually,  it  forced  upon  the  learner  the  study  of  a  pre- 
posterously difficult  Latin  grammar,  compiled  by  a  Spanish 
monk,  Alvar,  so  that  the  answer  was  always  ready,  in  case 
a  parent  shoukl  think  a  boy  fit  for  some  manlier  task : 
"  At  least  let  him  stay  till  he  has  finished  his  grammar 
lessons" — by  which  time  the  pinched  and  dwarfed  intelli- 
gence could  be  easily  turned  to  a  tool  of  mental  tyranny. 
The  childish  understanding,  along  with  the  ferocious  pas- 
sion, that  astonish  us  in  later  Polish  story,  were  the  fit  ripe 
fruit  of  this  stupid  and  wicked  training. 

Naturally,  the  first  victims  were  the  Unitarians,  who 
had  not  even  the  defense  there  might  be  in  a  united  Prot- 
estant opinion.      ICarly  in   the   reign  of  Sigismunil  TIL,  in 

I  Beza  had  urged  that  Unitarians  shoull  1)C  suppressed  by  the  sword, 
after  Calvin's  righteous  example  in  Geneva.  Their  final  rejection  from  the 
Polish  Protestant  League  was  in  1598. 


88  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  iv. 

1594,  Socinus  had  published  the  treatise  on  "Christ  the 
Saviour  "  {dc  Jesn  Christo  Scrvatorc),  by  which  his  theology- 
is  most  distinctly  known.  Four  years  later  was  the  brutal 
assault  upon  him  in  his  sick-bed,  before  described  (p.  67). 
In  1605,  the  year  after  his  death,  was  published  in  Polish 
the  first  form — probably  in  the  main  his  own  work — of  the 
"  Racovian  Catechism,"  which  long  had  a  certain  fame  as 
the  best  exponent  of  Socinian  theology.^ 

The  school  at  Rakow  went  on,  with  a  fair  amount  of 
well-earned  popularity  and  a  high  repute  for  good  learning. 
Under  its  eminent  head,  John  Crell,  it  won  the  title  of 
"the  Sarmatian  Athens."  It  "  was  frequented  not  only 
by  Socinian  but  also  by  Protestant  and  Catholic  youths ; 
and  it  numbered  about  a  thousand  pupils,"  besides  adding 
to  the  prosperity  of  the  district  by  its  fame  as  a  university 
town.  This  continued  for  nearly  forty  years,  its  enemies 
waiting  the  hour  for  its  destruction.  At  length,  in  the 
fatal  year  1638,  two  of  its  students,  for  boyish  mischief, 
were  seen  to  stone  a  wooden  crucifix  set  up  beside  the 
public  street.  The  boys  were  duly  checked  and  disciplined  ; 
public  apology  was  made,  with  the  offer  of  any  reasonable 
expiation ;  but  nothing  could  save  the  school.  In  spite  of 
generous  remonstrance  from  Protestants,  from  members 
of  the  Greek  Church,  and  even  from  Catholics,  "  a  decree 
was  passed,  enjoining  that  the  Unitarian  church  at  Rakow 
should  be  closed,  the  college  broken  up,  the  printing-house 
demolished,  the  ministers  and  professors  branded  as  infa- 
mous, proscribed  and  banished  from  the  state."  The  sen- 
tence was  so  ruthlessly  carried  out  that  the  aged  Sieninski, 
landlord  of  the  territory  and  founder  of  the  town,  was 
accused  by  his  own  son,  greedy  of  the  inheritance,  and 

1  An  edition  in  Latin,  in  1609,  gave  it  wide  currency.  Attempts  were 
made  in  England  to  suppress  it  in  1614  and  in  1651.  A  very  handsome 
English  version,  edited  by  Thomas  Rees,  with  a  valuable  historical  introduc- 
tion, was  published  in  London  in  1818,  by  Longman  &  Co. 


COSSACK  REVOLT.  89 

only  "  escaped  the  severity  exercised  against  his  fellovv- 
reHgionists  by  taking  an  oath  that  he  was  innocent  of  the 
crime  committed  against  a  wooden  cross  by  two  school- 
boys." 

This  atrocious  act  led  to  further  consequences.  Besides 
its  crushing  direct  injury,  "  it  gave  encouragement  to  the 
provincial  tribunals  in  every  part  of  the  kingdom  to  per- 
secute with  the  utmost  severity  all  who  openly  professed 
antitrinitarian  sentiments,  and  to  prevent  the  unfortunate 
exiles  from  Rakow  from  obtaining  a  secure  and  peaceable 
asylum  in  other  places."  This,  too,  in  the  reign  of  the  com- 
paratively manly  and  just  Ladislas,  elder  son  of  Sigismund. 

Before  the  end  of  his  reign  came,  the  awful  retribution 
began' — an  uprising  of  the  Cossacks  in  1647,  led  by 
Hmelnitski,-  a  chief  of  extraordinary  craft  and  power,  whose 
wife  had  been  abducted  and  afterwards  murdered  in  pure 
wantonness  by  a  Polish  governor.  This  horrible  revolt 
desolated  the  entire  south  of  Poland,  bringing  ruin  and 
destruction  especially  upon  the  Unitarian  communities, 
which  were  most  numerous  and  prosperous  there.  This 
misery  was  checked  for  a  time  by  a  treaty  that  promised 
the  Cossacks  certain  political  rights,  particularly  that  of 
being  represented  in  the  senate  by  their  ecclesiastical 
chief,  a  dignitary  of  the  Eastern  Church.  But  when  he 
came  to  present  himself,  the  Catholic  senators  by  common 
consent  turned  their  backs  and  left  the  hall  in  a  body,  dis- 
daining to  sit  with  a  schismatic.  Stung  by  the  insult,  the 
Cossacks  broke  into  a  revolt  more  terrible  than  before, 
leading  on  a  prodigious  horde  of  Tartars  as  allies. 

1  How  awful,  let  those  who  will  see  in  the  two  wonderfully  powerful  and 
impressive  tales  by  Sienkiewicz,  "  With  Fire  and  Sword  "  and  "  The  Deluge  " 
(Hoston,  Little,  Urown  &  Co.).  The  author  writes,  apparently,  from  the 
point  of  view  of  a  fanatic  Romanist :  at  least,  that  is  the  phase  of  feeling  the 
narrative  reflects;  but  it  exhibits,  with  terril)le  fidelity,  the  crimes  of  inso- 
lence, lawlessness,  and  violence  among  the  Polish  nobility,  which  brought 
the  downfall  of  the  commonwealth.  2  In  Polisli,  Chniiclnicki. 


go  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  iv. 

In  the  midst  of  these  horrors  the  younger  son  of  Sigis- 
mund,  John  Cashiiir,  came  to  the  throne — a  bigot,  a  ped- 
ant, a  cardinal,  and  a  Jesuit,  but  brave  to  strike  one  mighty 
blow  at  the  invader.  Beaten  back  from  an  awful  siege, 
and  crushed  in  a  terrible  battle,  the  Cossacks  threw  them- 
selves into  the  arms  of  their  fellow-religionists  of  Russia. 
By  1654  all  the  eastern  half  of  Poland,  including  Lithuania, 
was  in  the  hands  of  those  merciless  assailants.  Just  then 
the  evil  genius  of  John  Casimir  had  prompted  him  to  put 
forth  his  claim  to  Sweden,  renounced  by  his  father  fifty 
years  before ;  and  in  a  few  months  his  cousin  Charles 
Gustavus — a  warrior  in  temper,  like  his  grandson  Charles 
XII. — held  without  dispute  whatever  of  Poland  Cossack, 
Tartar,  and  Russian  had  spared.  John  Casimir,  an  exile  in 
Silesia,  put  himself  under  the  special  protection  of  the 
Holy  Virgin,  vowing  that,  if  restored  to  his  kingdom,  he 
would  right  the  wrongs  of  the  peasants  and  "  purify  the 
land  of  heresy." 

Seasonably  for  the  fulfillment  of  his  oath,  Charles  Gus- 
tavus, who  was  master  of  Poland  in  fact,  now  refused  in 
brute  insolence  to  be  made  its  king  by  law.  His  sword, 
he  said,  was  the  only  title  he  chose  to  hold  it  by.  The 
proud  nobles  who  had  accepted  him  made  a  confederacy 
to  restore  their  native  prince.  The  Swedish  troops,  hard- 
ened in  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  had  outraged  the  peasantry 
by  burning,  plunder,  massacre,  and  cutting  off"  their  cap- 
tives' hands.  A  tempest  of  fanatical  reaction  set  in.  Lord 
and  serf  joined  hands  to  sweep  the  invader  out  of  the  land. 
The  Swedes,  by  help  of  the  Protestant  "  Great  Elector," 
broke  (it  is  said)  forever  the  strength  of  the  Polish  chivalry 
in  the  fatal  three  days'  battle  at  Warsaw.  Then  the  elec- 
tor changed  sides.  Sweden  was  forced  to  give  way.  Prus- 
sia claimed  and  won  its  independence.  Polnnd,  exhausted 
and  dismembered,  was  in  condition  to  call  itself  a  sover- 


DEATH  OK  EXILE   {1G5S-60).  9I 

eign  state  once  more.  And  in  1658  the  time  was  come 
for  John  Casimir  to  execute  his  vow. 

The  decree  in  which  he  did  it  is  by  far  the  most  impor- 
tant pubHc  document  that  has  ever  touched  the  destinies 
of  the  Unitarian  body ;  and,  as  such,  the  substance  of  it 
is  copied  here:^  "Although  our  law  hath  ever  forbidden 
the  Arian  sect  to  subsist  and  spread  in  our  dominions,  yet 
since,  by  some  fatal  chance  of  the  Commonwealth,  the  said 
sect  hath  for  no  long  time  begun  to  expand  as  well  within 
our  realm  as  in  the  grand  duchy  of  Lithuania,  denying  the 
fore-eternity  of  the  Son  of  God ;  We  therefore,  reafifirming 
and  leaving  in  full  rigor  against  them  the  statute  [afore- 
said], have  ordained  as  follows:  That  if  any  such  shall  be 
found,  who  shall  have  dared  or  shall  attempt  within  our 
said  dominions  to  confess,  propagate,  or  preach  the  afore- 
said doctrine,  or  to  protect  and  cherish  it  and  its  uphold- 
ers, and  shall  be  lawfully  convicted  of  the  same,  every 
such  person  shall  be  liable  to  be  without  delay  capitally 
punished  by  our  magistrates,  by  their  own  authority, 
under  penalty  of  loss  of  office."  A  respite  of  three  years 
was  granted  for  the  sale  of  estates  and  collection  of  debts. 

With  superfluous  cruelty,  the  three  years'  term  was  sud- 
denly cut  short,  without  notice,  at  the  end  of  two  years, 
and  those  who  held  to  their  faith  must  leave  at  once, 
mostly  beggared  and  stripped.  One  of  the  fine  traditions 
of  the  Polish  Brethren  speaks  of  the  noble  plea  made  at 
Cracow,  in  1660,  by  Andrew  Wiszowaty,  grandson  of  So- 
cinus's  only  child,  who  stood  alone  before  the  diet  in  de- 
fense of  the  banished  brotherhood.     From  an  appeal  made 

1  It  is  said  that  there  was  doubt  for  a  time  whetlier  the  victims  of  it  should 
be  Socinians  or  Jews  ;  tlie  Jews,  however,  though  worse  misbelievers,  were 
more  profitaljle  subjects.  Besides,  the  <^reat  house  of  Radzivill,  second  in 
the  kinj^dom  and  chief  protector  of  the  Unitarians,  had  consented,  under 
the  double  tempest  of  invasion,  to  jnit  Lithuania  under  protection  of  the 
Swedes — a  deadly  afTront  to  the  kinj;. 


92  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  iv. 

to  the  Great  Elector  by  Samuel  Przypkowski,  while  these 
wrongs  were  still  fresh  and  bleeding,  the  following  words 
are  taken :  "  Upon  the  shore  where  we  were  cast  beats  a 
most  cruel  tempest  and  storm  of  ills — continual  wasting 
by  the  enemy,  continual  assault  of  troops,  frequent  gather- 
ing of  armies,  bitter  hate  and  strifes  between  kings  and 
nobles,  poverty  of  all  ranks,  a  plague  of  debased  coinage, 
which  drains  the  sap  and  very  life-blood  from  the  body  of 
the  kingdom,  filling  it  with  dropsy,  civil  war,  and  the  heap- 
ing up  of  every  evil,  and,  which  is  worst  of  all,  no  com- 
fort of  hope,  but  worse  apprehension  of  the  future.  How 
base  and  pitiful  it  is,  that  so  many  noble  men  and  women, 
widows  and  orphans,  driven  from  their  native  land,  many 
of  them  stripped  of  wealth  and  great  estates,  who  once 
gave  largely  in  chanty  to  others,  now  need  not  others'  help 
alone,  but  their  pity ;  and  are  in  peril  of  new  and  even 
worse  persecution,  since  they  no  longer  have  the  strength 
to  bear  up  under  it.  Tossed  by  so  many  waves  and  storms, 
suffering  every  form  of  dread  and  horror,  we  are  thrust  off 
from  the  hospitality  even  of  the  sand,  yes,  the  bleak  and 
barren  sand.  Because  we  are  beginning  to  till  laboriously 
these  sterile  and  desert  spots,  and  to  restore  the  scorched 
and  broken  ruins  of  the  towns,  what  harm  or  loss  shall  we 
be  charged  with  bringing  upon  the  regions  to  which  we 
have  fled  for  refuge?  Is  it  for  this  we  have  deserved 
to  be  vexed  with  threats  and  edicts,  or  cast  forth  to  the 
insolent  barbarity  of  the  mob?"^ 

The  exile  of  the  Polish  Brethren  was  even  more  cruel 
than  the  tragedy  which  twenty-five  years  later  took  place, 
on  a  far  larger  scale,  in  the  expulsion  of  the  Huguenots 
from  France.  These  had  at  least  the  sympathy  and  the 
protection  of  a  vast  body  of  co-religionists,  the  hospitality 
of  neighboring  England  further  prompted  by  commercial 

1  "  Apologia  Afflicts  Innocenti.x' "  (1666). 


LAST  OF   THE  POLISH  BRIiTHREN.  93 

rivalry,  or  the  welcome  of  many  among  them  to  the  new 
colonies  of  America ;  but,  for  our  poor  heretics,  counted  at 
most  by  tens  and  not  by  hundreds  of  thousands,  the  nar- 
row integrity  of  conscience,  which  was  their  one  heroic 
virtue,  cut  them  ofT  from  the  fellow-feeling  of  Catholic  and 
Protestant  alike.  Some  found  generous  welcome  over  the 
border,  in  Transylvania.  Some,  by  the  queen's  bounty, 
were  settled  in  Silesia.  Some  sought  refuge  in  Holland, 
still  famous  for  its  splendid  defense  of  religious  independ- 
ence ;  but  here  they  were  received  churlishly  and  grudg- 
ingly, out  of  old  Anabaptist  memories,  and  were  pushed 
back,  as  far  as  might  be,  to  the  less  inhospitable  regions 
farther  east.  Their  last  appeal,  which  we  have  listened  to, 
gained  them  generous  reception  in  Brandenburg  and  Prus- 
sia ;  and  here  we  may  consider  to  have  been  the  home  of 
such  poor  remnants  as  still  clung  to  the  old  name  and 
brotherhood.  In  1730  eleven  families  of  them  still  sur- 
vived. As  late  as  1838,  in  answer  to  a  friendly  letter  of 
inquiry,  two  old  men — by  name  Morsztyn  and  Schlichting 
— were  reported  as  still  living  in  eastern  Prussia,  a  remnant 
of  the  old  Socinians.  With  them,  we  may  suppose,  passed 
away  the  last  fragment  of  what,  for  one  eventful  century, 
had  borne  honorable  part  in  the  brilliant  commonwealth 
of  Poland. 

Bayle,  writing  about  1690,  when  the  story  of  their  exile 
was  still  fresh,  makes  the  following  comment :  "  There  are 
few  who  are  not  persuaded  that  it  [the  Unitarian  opinion] 
has  extended  in  obscurity,  and  spread  more  widely  day 
by  day ;  and  it  is  thought  that,  as  things  now  are,  Europe 
would  be  soon  surprised  at  finding  itself  Socinian  if  pow- 
erful princes  should  embrace  this  heresy,  or  if  they  should 
only  enact  that  its  profession  should  be  relieved  of  the 
temporal  disabilities  it  labors  -under.  This  is  the  opinion 
of  many  persons ;   and  the  opinion  perplexes  and  alarms 


94  I^^J^    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  iv. 

them."  It  is  a  comment  natural  to  a  freetliinker,  recoil- 
ing from  some  recent  horror  of  intolerance,  like  the  revo- 
cation of  the  Edict  of  Nantes.  But,  in  itself,  it  is  shallow 
and  improbable.  The  Unitarian  doctrine  is  not  a  form 
of  thought,  and  the  Socinians  were  not  a  body  of  men, 
likely  to  make  a  deep  impression  upon  a  time  of  excessive 
bigotry  or  of  virulent  controversy.  These  men  were  hon- 
est, learned,  pious,  faithful  to  their  light.  They  deserve 
their  share  of  henor — no  small  share.  But  their  thin 
rationalizing,  not  backed  by  any  large  intelligent  criticism, 
was  far  enough  from  meeting  the  deeper  claims  of  the  relig- 
ious life.  We  have  seen  how  their  narrow  interpretation, 
their  incorrigible  pedantry,  held  them  from  the  broader 
ranges  of  the  more  vigorous  life  that  lay  within  their 
reach. 

A  conspicuous  defeat  has  its  reasons,  which  should  be 
sought  in  history.  Socinus  began  by  breaking  rather  vio- 
lently with  the  bolder  and  equally  pious  rationalism  of  his 
natural  allies  in  Transylvania.  His  Polish  adherents  de- 
feated the  hope  of  religious  union  (if  such  a  thing  were 
possible)  by  incessantly  pressing  the  minute  points  of  like- 
ness, or  points  of  difference,  that  lay  between  them  and 
more  orthodox  Reformers.  It  was  the  same  to  the  last. 
The  pathetic  and  eloquent  appeal  of  Przypkowski,  just 
quoted,  is  immediately  followed  by  a  formal  argument  to 
show,  not  the  nobility  of  a  true  religious  freedom,  but 
that  the  Socinian  creed  was,  after  all,  not  so  very  heretical ; 
not  nearly  so  heretical,  in  fact,  as  some  with  which  it  had 
been  confounded,  particularly  the  "  Judaizing "  opinions 
of  Francis  David  and  his  like.  These  are  melancholy 
weaknesses.  But  they  are,  as  we  recollect,  the  weaknesses 
of  the  best  and  most  intelligent  men  of  their  day.  They 
show  how  far  it  was  from  possible,  then,  that  the  first 
principles  of  a  scientific  theology  should  be  understood. 


THE   ''  KACOVIAN  CATECHISM:''  95 

The   Polish   Brethren   nuist  needs  prove   the   aecuracy  of 
their  opinion,  not  content  with  simple  honesty  of  thought. 

The  Socinian  opinion  as  to  controverted  points  of  doc- 
trine has  been  sufliciently  shown  elsewhere.  Its  master- 
piece of  exposition,  the  "  Racovian  Catechism,"  well  de-jk 
serves  the  reputation  it  gained.  Wholly  apart  from  the  value 
of  its  theology,  the  form  of  its  argument  gives  it  an  educa- 
tional value  distinctly  superior  to  that  of  any  similar  work 
of  the  school  to  which  it  is  nearest  allied.  Its  bits  of  ex- 
egesis, turning  on  the  exact  meaning  of  Scripture  terms, 
are  often  vivid  and  suggestive.  Its  treatment  of  practical 
ethics,  in  the  light  of  Bible  precepts,  is  singularly  wise  and 
clear:  take,  for  example,  the  topic  of  Usury  (p.  237),  so 
often  treated  by  religionists  with  mere  ignorant  tirade ; 
while  the  breadth  of  plan  and  the  logical  method  and  com- 
pleteness— beginning  with  the  true  value  of  the  Scriptures, V 
and  ending  by  an  answer  to  the  question.  What  is  the  In-  " 
visible  Church  of  Christ? — make  it,  to  this  day,  a  treatise 
well  worth  study.  The  well-taught,  sober,  rational,  and 
devout  Unitarianism,  which  accepted  this  for  a  century  or 
more  as  its  best  manual  of  faith,  held  to  it  by  a  wise  and 
fortunate  choice.  It  cannot  be  said  to  have  been  really 
superseded  until  the  coming  in  of  that  revolution  in  relig- 
ious thought  implied  in  what  we  call  "  the  higher  criticism" 
of  our  own  day. 

The  Socinians  have  been  thus  generously  judged  by 
Archbishop  Tillotson,  an  opponent  of  their  theology,  who 
wrote,  about  1690:  "I  must  own  that  generally  they  are 
a  pattern  of  the  fair  way  of  disputing  and  of  debating 
matters  of  religion,  without  heat  and  unseemly  reflections 
upon  their  adversaries.  They  generally  argue  matters 
with  that  temper  and  gravity,  with  that  freedom  from  pas- 
sion and  transprrt,  which  becomes  a  serious  and  weighty 
argument ;    and  for  the  most  part  they  reason  closely  and 


96  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  iv. 

clearly,  with  extraordinary  guard  and  caution,  with  great 
dexterity  and  decency,  and  yet  with  smartness  and  subtlety 
enough,  with  a  very  gentle  heat,  and  few  hard  words — 
virtues  to  be  praised  wherever  they  are  found :  yea,  even 
in  an  enemy,  and  very  worthy  our  imitation.  In  a  word, 
they  are  the  strongest  managers  of  a  weak  cause,  and 
which  is  ill-founded  at  the  bottom,  that  perhaps  ever  yet 
meddled  with  controversy.  Insomuch  that  some  of  the 
Protestant  and  the  generality  of  the  popish  writers,  and 
even  of  the  Jesuits  themselves,  who  pretend  to  all  the  rea- 
son and  subtlety  in  the  world,  are  in  comparison  of  them 
but  mere  scolds  and  bunglers.  Upon  the  whole  matter 
they  have  but  one,  this  great,  defect,  that  they  want  a  good 
cause  and  truth  on  their  side,  which  if  they  had,  they 
have  reason  and  wit  and  temper  to  defend  it."  ^ 

1  Quoted  by  Krasinski,  vol.  ii.,  p.  407. 


CHAPTER   V. 

T  R  A  N  S  \-  L  V  A  N  I  A  . 

The  oldest  existing  group  of  Unitarian  ciiurches  is  that 
in  Transylvania,  the  extreme  easterly  portion  of  the  Aus- 
tro-Hungarian  Empire.  Its  history  as  an  organized  body 
dates  from  1568,  when  the  Unitarian  belief  was  formally 
recognized  as  one  of  the  ftnir  legal  "religions"  of  that 
province — the  Catholic,  Lutheran,  Reformed  (Calvinist), 
and  Unitarian,  whose  constitutional  rights  were  reaffirmed 
at  Presburg  in  1848.  A  royal  charter,  dated  1571,  gave 
to  it  corporate  rights  which  no  political  changes  have  suc- 
ceeded in  annulling;  though  the  attempt  has  been  made, 
often  with  excessive  cruelty  and  injustice,  here  as  else- 
where. Its  survival  has  been  due  partly  to  the  nature 
of  the  country  and  the  circumstances  of  its  history,  but 
chiefly  to  the  singular  qualities  of  the  unconquerable  race 
of  men  that  hold  it.  A  few  words  must  first  be  said,  ac- 
cordingly, of  the  land  and  people.^ 

Transylvania  is  the  blunt  wedge  of  rugged  country,  in 
outline  not  unlike  a  ram's  head,  abutting  upon  the  old 
frontier  of  Turkey,  now  Roumania.  It  covers  some  sixteen 
thousand  square  miles,  being  not  quite  half  as  large  as  the 

1  In  this  sketch  T  avail  myself  of  some  recollections  of  a  visit  to  Transyl- 
vania in  1881,  as  (Jelegate  to  the  "  Supreme  Consistory  "  held  at  Klausenl>urg 
(Kolozsvar).  My  chief  authorities,  besides,  are  the  monograph  of  Professor 
Rath,  "  Siehenl)iirgen  "  (Ileidelherg,  1880);  an  historical  sketch  by  Joszef 
Ferencz,  found  in  his  "  Kleiner  Unitarier  Spiegel"  (Vienna,  1879);  narra- 
tives of  English  visitors,  Raget,  Tayler,  Chalmers,  and  Ciordon  ;  that  of  A. 
Coquerel ///j,  in  the  "Revue  Politique  et  Eitteraire "  (November,  1873); 
a  review  by  1'.  Hunfalvyof  .Alexis  Jakal)'s  "  Eife  of  Francis  David"  (Buda- 
pest, 1880) ;  and  the  personal  aid  kindly  given  me  by  my  friends  Prof.  George 
I5oros,  of  Kolozsvar,  and  Mr.  John  Eretwell. 

97 


98  THE    UXITAKIANS.  [Chai'.  v. 

State  of  Maine.  Its  population  is  something  over  two 
millions,  extremely  mixed  and  diverse  :  less  than  one  third 
are  Hungarian,  or  Magyar;  considerably  more  than  half 
are  Roumanian  or  Wallach ;  the  rest  being  made  up  of 
Germans,  Gypsies,  Armenians,  and  Jews.  It  is  guarded  on 
the  north,  east,  and  south  by  the  great  mountain  masses 
of  the  Carpathians,  which  rise  steep  from  the  vast  levels 
that  spread  eastward  into  Asia.  On  the  west  it  is  sharply 
divided  from  the  broad  Hungarian  plain  by  a  very  abrupt 
and  rocky  boundary  of  hills — the  Kirdly-Jiag,  or  "  King's 
Fence."  It  thus  stands  out  boldly  upon  the  map  as  a 
great  natural  fortress  or  bastion.  It  was,  in  fact,  for  more 
than  a  thousand  years  the  chief  bulwark  of  southeastern 
Europe  against  invasions  always  threatening  from  the  East. 
In  the  fifteenth  century  the  genius  of  its  greatest  national 
hero,  John  Hunniades  [Hjnijddi  Jdnos),  seconded  by  the 
half-fabulous  exploits  of  Scanderbeg  in  Albania,  seems 
alone  to  have  saved  the  German  Empire  from  the  fate  of 
Constantinople.  And  that  great  terror  lasted  into,  and 
more  than  a  century  beyond,  the  time  of  Luther. 

The  "  seven  cardinal  sins  "  of  Transylvania,  which  have 
greatly  perplexed  its  history,  are  said  to  be  its  Three  Na- 
tions and  its  Four  Religions.  The  four  chartered  religions 
are,  as  we  have  seen,  the  Catholic,  Lutheran,  Calvinist,  and 
Unitarian.  The  "three  nations"  are:  (i)  the  Szeklers 
("  frontiersmen  "),  who  also  call  themselves  Attilans,  claim- 
ing to  be  descended  from  a  portion  of  the  vast  troop  of  At- 
tila  the  Hun,  which  fell  back  from  the  battle  of  Chalons  in 
451,  and  has  held  this  land  ever  since;  (2)  those  who  in 
distinction  from  the  Szeklers  are  called  Magyars,  being  of 
the  same  race  and  tongue,  but  left,  after  a  second  Hunnish 
invasion,  early  in  the  tenth  century, 1  in  possession  of  the 

^  Of  wliich   curious  incidents   arc  found   in   ScIiciTcl's   "  Kkkeliart, "  witli 
his  authorities  in  Pertz's  "  Monunienta  Gernianica,"  voh  ii.,  pp.  104-107. 


M.IGYAJkS,  SAXOXS,    WALLACIIS.  99 

land  to  which  they  gave  the  name  Hungary :  they  ac- 
cepted Christianity  under  Duke  Geisa,  father  of  their  king 
St.  Stephen,  some  time  before  the  year  looo;  (3)  some- 
thing over  200,000  Germans,  here  called  Saxons,  colonized 
from  lower  Germany  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centu- 
ries, to  strengthen  the  defenses  against  invasion  and  fill  up 
great  voids  left  by  incessant  attack  and  spoliation,  espe- 
cially the  horrid  Tartar  inroad  of  1241  :  these  are  repre- 
sented as  a  sturdy  and  valiant  people,  of  thrift  somewhat 
sordid  and  holdfast,  hating  change,  Lutheran  almost  to  a 
man.-  Singularly  true  to  the  language  and  customs  of 
their  forefathers,  their  very  local  costumes  and  popular 
songs  are  said  to  be  the  same  that  may  be  found  to-day 
in  their  distant  fatherland.  They  have  given  its  German 
name,  Sicbciihiirgcii  ("  Sex'cn  Fortresses"),  to  the  land  in 
which  they  dwell  in  a  certain  seclusion,  a  sort  of  secular- 
ized Covenanters.  Some  have  joined  the  Unitarians,  but 
in  doing  it  ha\-e  had  to  renounce  their  native  tongue  as 
well  as  creed.  The  impracticable  Magyar  is  the  vernacu- 
lar of  the  Unitarian  confession ;  and  that  church  was  itself 
at  one  time  known  simply  as  "  Hungarian." 

These  "  three  nations  "  do  not  however  include  all,  or 
even  half,  the  population  of  Transylvania.  In  fact,  since 
the  i)olitical  equality  decreed  by  the  Hungarian  Diet  in 
1848,  they  have  ceased  practically  to  exist.  A  considera- 
ble majority  consists  of  Wallachians  or  Wallachs, — that  is, 
"  Strangers,"  who  call  themselves  "  Roumans,"  who  claim 
to  be  descended  from  the  Dacian  colonists  that  retreated 
before  the  Goths  across  the  Danube  in  272,  and  who  cher- 
ish dreams  of  a  Daco-Roumanian  sovereignty  to  lord  it 
some  day  over  their  old  masters  and  oppressors  the  Hun- 
garans.  To  the  eye  they  make  a  picturesque  but  abject 
peaL  uitry,  skilled  only  in  the  ruder  tasks,  addicted  to  ser- 
vile superstitions,  and  guilty  of  horrible  atrocities  in  several 


lOO  THE    UNiTAKIANS.  [CnAi'.  v. 

insurrections,  the  latest  being  that  prompted  by  Austrian 
intrigues  in  1848.^  In  reHgion  they  hold  to  a  debased 
form  of  the  Eastern  ritual,  those  who  (under  pressure  from 
Maria  Theresa)  acknowledge  the  pope  as  spiritual  sover- 
eign being  of  a  "  received  "  religion,  while  the  rest  remain 
"schismatic."  Their  priests,  some  of  whom  are  men  of 
high  intelligence,  are  greatly  dreaded  as  secret  agents  of 
Russian  policy,  thus  further  embittering  and  complicat- 
ing old  jealousies  of  race.  And  to  this  we  may  add  that, 
while  the  Magyars  are  nearly  stationary  and  the  Saxons 
are  dwindling  in  population,  the  Wallachs  rapidly  increase, 
both  by  immigration  and  (spite  of  their  extreme  poverty) 
by  their  kindly  and  easy-going  family  life.- 

In  numbers,  then,  those  of  Magyar  blood  and  speech 
are  hardly  more  than  one  fourth  of  the  inhabitants  of  Tran- 
sylvania. But  they  are,  as  any  one  who  has  met  an  assem- 
blage of  them  will  quickly  recognize,  natural  leaders  and 
rulers  of  men — sturdy,  intelligent,  grave,  solid,  masterful ; 
a  race  that  could  not  fail  to  lead  and  command,  as  they 
have  done,  among  feebler  or  less  resolute  populations. 
Recklessly  brave,  they  stood  in  front  of  the  great  battle 
that  for  a  thousiand  years  had  to  be  fought  for  the  security 
of  western  Christendom.  They  might  be  nearly  exter- 
minated ;  again  and  again  they  have  been  cut  down  to  a 
mere  fragment.  Incessantly  reduced  in  numbers,  the  race 
has  maintained  itself  by  a  resolute,  haughty,  and  exclusive 
temper,  strikingly  relieved  against  a  frankness  of  manner 

1  Of  this  the  Hungarian  novelist  Jokai  has  given  several  powerful  pictures, 
the  completest  being  in  a  Transylvanian  romance,  "  Die  nur  einnial  Helien," 
and  the  most  tragic  in  "  Hungarian  ,Sl<ctches,"  the  story  entitled  "  Tlic  Dardy 
Family"  (Knglisli  translation,  Edinl)urgh,  1864). 

2  In  Paget's  "Hungary  and  Transylvania"  (London,  1839)  are  most 
striking  illustrations  of  the  above.  Mrs.  Gerard's  "  Land  beyond  the  For- 
est "  gives  the  best  pictures  we  have  of  the  Saxons  and  Wallachs,  I)ut  her 
brief  chapter  on  the  Unitarian  Magyars  is  little  better  than  an  ignorant  or 
wanton  libel.  For  the  political  relations  of  the  races,  see  Szemere's  "  Hun- 
gary from  1848  to  i860"  (Letters  to  Cobdcn),  London,  Bentley. 


THE   SZEKLERS.  10 1 

and  simple  habit  of  life  equally  characteristic.  On  occa- 
sion, that  haughty  temper  can  be  driven  to  acts  of  ex- 
treme cruelty  and  contempt,  of  which  shocking  examples 
are  told  by  friendly  narr^itors.^  But  their  ordinary  con- 
duct towards  dependent  populations  would  seem  to  have 
been  magnanimous  and  kindly — especially  as  seen  in  their 
almost  romantic  declaration  of  rights  in  1848.  Such  out- 
breaks of  vengeance,  or  race-feud,  as  we  have  been  told 
of  we  may  easily  understand,  and  perhaps  pardon,  when 
we  remember  our  own  dealings  with  Negroes,  Indians,  or 
Chinese.  The  terrible  uprising  of  the  autumn  of  1848 — 
when  "  Wallachs  burned  the  women  and  spitted  the  chil- 
dren of  the  Magyars,  and  these  revenged  themselves  by 
destroying  the  Wallachian  villages  from  the  very  face  of 
the  land  "- — was  stimulated  by  the  base  policy  of  Austria 
working  through  the  jealousy  of  Croatian  Slavs;  for  the 
rural  aristocracy  of  the  Szeklers,  who  were  its  special  vic- 
tims, made  the  backbone  of  the  short-lived  Republic  of 
that  date."*  They  accept,  however,  very  heartily  their 
position  in  the  double  empire  since  1867.  They  would, 
we  are  told,  die  readily  for  Franz  Jozsef,  the  King  of  Hun- 
gary, while  they  might  resist  to  the  death  his  acts  as  Em- 
peror of  Austria.  I  was  told  more  than  once,  gratefully, 
of  the  tears  shed  by  the  Austrian  empress  at  the  death  of 
their  patriot  statesman  Deak.  We  may  expect  to  see 
something  of  the  same  temper  now  described  in  their  de- 
fense of  that  particular  form  of  belief  which  had  come  to 
them  as  their  own  share  in  the  great  inheritance  of  the 
Protestant  Reformati(Mi.  The  story  is  worth  the  telling, 
not  simply  for  the   historical  importance  of  the  mo\'ement 

1  As  in  Paget,  vol.  ii.,  p.  109  (of  date  1523);    Ratli,  p.   157  (of  17S1). 

2  Hrace's  "  Hungary  in  1851,"  p.  165. 

3  Menil)ers  of  tlie  consistory  at  Kolozsvar  had  been  leaders  in  the  revolu- 
tion of  i84<S;  and  my  most  kind  entertainer  at  Budapest,  the  historian  Alexis 
Jakal),  had  heen  an  ofTicer  of  Kossuth's  cavalry  in  twenty-three  engagements. 


I02  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  v. 

it  describes,  but  because  it  shows  the  Unitarian  doctrine 
in  an  heroic  or  martyr  attitude,  which  we  have  not  often 
so  good  cause  to  associate  with  it. 

We  have  already  seen,  in  the  story  of  Socinus,  how  the 
Unitarian  opinion  had  gained  a  footing  and  a  certain  dom- 
inance in  Transylvania,  partly  through  the  agency  of  an 
Italian  physician,  George  Blandrata,  who  had  come  over 
from  Poland  in  1563  at  the  summons  of  Queen  Isabella, 
and  had  won  great  influence  upon  her  son,  John  Sigismund, 
and  the  leaders  of  the  Reformation  there.  We  have  seen 
how  the  same  work  was  carried  still  further  forward  by  the 
most  eloquent  preacher  and  first  bishop  1  of  the  Unitarian 
body,  Francis  David;  how  this  body,  in  1568,  obtained 
certain  constitutional  rights,  which  it  has  kept  to  this  day ; 
and  how,  ten  years  later,  Francis  David  was  condemned 
for  innovation  in  doctrine,  under  a  charge  basely  pressed 
against  him  by  I^landrata,  and  was  cast  into  prison,  where 
he  died  in  November,  1579.  It  is  now  necessary  to  set 
these  events,  with  something  of  their  antecedents  and  re- 
sults, in  the  clearer  light  of  histor)^. 

The  period  with  which  this  history  has  most  to  do  covers 
about  one  hundred  and  sixty  years.  It  is  defined  by  the 
dates  of  two  great  battles  at  Mohacs,  in  western  Hungary, 
which  mark  one  the  advance  and  the  other  the  retreat  of 
the  Turkish  power.  These  dates  are  1526  and  1687.  At 
the  first,  the  Turks  became  masters  of  nearly  all  Hungary, 
which  they  held  under  a  sort  of  protectorate,  with  their 
seat  of  power  in  Buda  (now  the  older  half  of  the  modern 
capital),  which  marks  the  western  limit  of  their  sway.  At 
the  second,  having  already  been  driven  back  by  Sobieski, 
the  Polish  hero-king,  from  the  siege  of  Vienna,  they  suf- 
fered an  equally  great  defeat,  by  which  they  completely 

1  The  title  "  liishop  "  {piispok)  is  to  Le  taken  in  its  original  sense  as  "  su- 
pervisor "  of  an  ecclesiastical  district. 


REI-ORM.iriOX  IX    TRANSYLVANIA.  103 

lost  their  lu)l(l  upon  the  upper  valley  of  the  Danube.  The 
same  event  that  had  made  them  masters  of  this  region  also 
gave  to  Transylvania  its  century  and  a  half  of  free  political 
life — free,  except  as  it  might  appeal  to  either  court,  Chris- 
tian or  Moslem,  against  the  other,  and  so  be  driven  (as 
Bishop  Ferencz  illustrates)  like  a  tennis-ball  between  Con- 
stantinople and  Vienna. 

At  the  battle  in  1526  the  young  and  rash  Ludwig  11.,^ 
the  last  Jagello  king  of  Hungary,  had  perished  in  a  marsh. 
His  successor  laid  claim  to  Transylvania,  but  was  resisted 
by  the  Magyars  as  a  stranger,  who  could  not  even  take 
his  coronation  oath  in  their  own  tongue.  They  chose,  in- 
stead, a  typical  chief  of  their  own  blood,  John  Zapolya,- 
appealing  to  the  Turks  against  the  Germans.  From  this 
time  on  we  have  a  series  of  fourteen  quasi-independent 
sovereigns,  now  known  as  kings,  oftener  as  princes,  some- 
times as  voivodcs,  or  governors-general  under  foreign  rule. 
Tliis  term  of  qualified  independence,  it  will  be  noticed, 
covers  almost  exactly  what  is  called  the  "  Reformation 
period  "  in  modern  history. 

The  story  of  the  Reformation  in  Transylvania  begins 
with  John  Zapolya  (1526-40).  In  1529  a  decree  of 
exile  was  pronounced  against  Catholics,  probably  as  up- 
holders of  the  Austrian  policy  against  him.  In  the  next 
year  Kronstadt,  the  chief  "  Saxon  "  city,  declared  for  the 
Lutheran  faith ;  and  this  example  was  followed,  ten  years 
later,  by  Klausenburg  (Kolozs\-ar),  the  Magyar  capital. 
At  this  latter  date  (1540)  Unitarians  were  already  to  be 
found  in  Transylvanian  churches,  along  with  followers  of 
Luther  and  of  Zwingli.      Allying  his  name  with  the  glory 


1  Whom  Carlylc  calls  tlic  "  skinless  "  {oJtnc  Ifaitt),  from  a  physical  delicacy. 

2  Apparently  he  had  heen  the  leader  in  suiipressint;  a  horrible  six  months' 
Slavic  insurrection,  which  was  horribly  avenged,  as  related  by  Paget,  "  Hun- 
gary and  Transylvania,"  vol.  ii.,  ]).   109. 


I04  THE    UXITARIANS.  [Chap.  v. 

of  the  elder  reigning  house,  Zapolya  married  Isabella  Ja- 
gello,  daughter  of  Sigismund  the  Great  of  Poland  ;  ^  and 
at  his  death,  in  1540,  she  became  regent  to  their  infant 
son,  John  Sigismund,  who  was  proclaimed  by  the  Magyar 
nobles  as  prince,  with  Turkish  support  against  Ferdinand 
of  Austria.^ 

It  was  Isabella  who  in  1563  invited  from  Poland  the 
well-known  Unitarian  propagandist,  George  Blandrata, 
whom  a  Catholic  writer  describes  as  "  that  scoundrel  doc- 
tor, Blandrata  of  Saluzzo,  chief  of  the  Huguenot  sect!" 
Isabella  appears  to  have  steadily  befriended  the  most  radi- 
cal leaders  of  the  Reformation ;  and  her  counsels  must 
have  done  much  to  form  the  character  of  the  young 
prince,  the  one  hero-sovereign  of  history  who  has  frankly 
borne  the  name  of  Unitarian.  This  unique  position  of 
John  Sigismund  makes  the  more  interesting  the  following 
account  of  his  person  and  character,  taken  from  a  report 
addressed  by  a  Catholic  envoy  to  Cosmo,  Duke  of  Flor- 
ence :  "  His  look  is  kind  and  friendly,  out  of  blue  eyes. 
He  is  an  accomplished  cavalier,  skilled  with  the  lance,  a 
master  of  wrestling,  fencing,  the  bow,  and  the  lute.  He 
can  express  himself  well  in  Latin,  and  speaks  fluently 
Italian,  German,  Polish,  Hungarian,  Wallach,  with  some 
Greek  and  Turkish.  Kind-hearted,  mild-tempered,  gen- 
erous, high-spirited,  shrewd,  well-balanced,  eager,  brave, 
valiant  in  war,  he  will  be  wherever  danger  is  greatest ;  by 
day  and  night  in  the  saddle ;  so  faithful  in  service  that  he 
must  be  restrained  from  throwing  himself  away.  He  is 
pious  in  disposition,  earnest  in  the  search  for  truth  ;  slow 
to  inflict  punishment  of  crimes;  hates  a  hypocrite ;  is  in 
all  respects  virtuous  and  pure."^ 

1  See  above,  pp.  83,  84. 

2  At  this  time,  according  to  Mr.  Fretwcll,  was  formed  the  League  (virtually 
a  Protestant  league)  of  the  "  three  nations,"  Szekler,  Magyar,  and  Saxon. 

3  Rath,  "  Siebenbiirgen,"  p.  136. 


JOHN  SIGISMUND ;    FRANCIS  DAVID.  1 05 

The  conspicuous  glory  of  John  Sigismund's  reign  was  to 
estabUsh  in  1568  a  rehgious  peace  among  the  warring  sects 
on  the  basis  of  perfect  Hberty  of  conscience.  Before  his 
death,  three  years  later,  at  the  age  of  thirty-two,  he  had 
confirmed  the  charter  of  constitutional  rights,  by  which 
the  "  four  religions  "  abide  to-day.  When  once,  as  a  boy 
of  twelve,  he  had  been  dethroned  by  an  Austrian  conspir- 
acy, he  was  restored  by  Turkish  help ;  and  the  same  year 
that  gave  the  charter  of  religious  freedom  also  renewed 
and  confirmed  the  Turkish  alliance.  It  is  likely  that  this 
obligation  of  good- will,  with  dread  of  the  Jesuits  (who  are 
found  in  western  Hungary  as  early  as  1561),  did  something 
to  strengthen  his  hate  of  Christian  bigotry,  and  his  resolve 
to  compel  equal  justice  among  Christian  sects. 

The  story  of  the  Reformation  in  these  bright  early  days, 
so  far  as  touches  our  present  subject,  is  summed  up  in  the 
life  of  its  one  chief  religious  hero,  witness,  and  martyr, 
Francis  David. ^  The  capital  city,  Klausenburg,  was  at  that 
day  almost  equally  divided  among  the  "three  nations." 
Da\'id  was  himself,  by  the  common  account,  of  German 
famil}%  tliough  using  with  eciual  fluenc)-  lioth  I /■lin  and 
the  Magyar  speech,  which  then  became  dominant  there; 
his  family  name  he  spelled,  in  scholar's  fashion,  "  Davidis  " 
(=  Da\ids()ii).  He  was  born  about  1510;  and  it  was 
probably  the  narrow  means  of  his  father,  a  shoemaker 
by  trade,  that  kept  a  man  of  his  remarkable  gifts  from 
a  public  career  till  so  late  in  life;  for  it  appears  to  have 
been  when  he  was  already  thirty-eight  that  he  was  sent 
by  his  Catholic  instructors — men  certainly  of  singular  lib- 
erality— to  complete  his  college  training  by  three  years 
at  Wittenberg.      Luther  had    been    two  years  dead,   and 

1  For  many  details  of  tliis  account  T  am  in(lcl)te(l  to  a  l)iogiap1iical  sketch 
sent  mc  by  my  friend  and  host,  I'lof.  Cleorge  Boros,  of  Kolozsvar,  whose 
manuscript  may  he  found  in  tlic  ilar\:ud  Divinity  School  library. 


I06  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  v. 

it  must  have  been  Melanchthon's  influence  that  held 
David  from  plunging  too  hastily  into  the  path  of  reform, 
while  his  studies  in  Wittenberg  would  predispose  him  to 
that  course.  After  his  return,  in  155 1,  he  served  two 
years  in  the  modest  post  of  a  country  schoolmaster  or 
curate.  When  his  vocation  as  preacher  became  apparent, 
he  was  of  that  liberal  wing  of  the  Catholic  clergy  who  re- 
solved, while  remaining  in  their  mother-church,  to  preach 
only  the  truth  of  Christ  as  they  might  honestly  find  it  in 
the  gospel.  Coming  to  be  well  known  as  an  effective 
speaker  to  the  learned  and  the  people,  to  each  in  their 
own  tongue,  he  was  in  1556  established  as  a  metropolitan 
preacher  in  Klausenburg.  It  is  here,  at  the  age  of  forty- 
six,  that  his  career  properly  begins. 

He  was  already  identified  in  the  popular  mind  with  the 
Lutheran  party,  whether  or  not  a  seceder  as  yet  from  the 
Church  of  Rome.  With  his  growing  repute  as  a  pulpit 
orator,  he  became  more  independent  and  bold  in  asserting 
the  claim  of  reason  in  religion.  The  German  part  of  the 
population  was,  as  a  rule,  Lutheran  ;  the  Magyar,  well  in- 
clined to  take  a  step  beyond,  held  the  Genevan  view.  The 
critical  point  just  then  was  the  doctrine  of  sacraments ; 
and  with  sore  reluctance  David  found  himself  obliged  to 
part  company  with  his  former  associates,  on  Luther's  asser- 
tion of  the  Real  Presence  in  the  Eucharist.  Just  here,  too, 
John  Sigismund,  now  a  youth  under  twenty,  came  forward 
in  support  of  the  new  advance.  But  the  genius  of  the 
people  itself  was  a  still  more  effectual  aid  than  the  prince's 
favor.  The  Hungarians,  as  we  have  seen,  were  never 
ardently  loyal  to  Catholic  ascendency.  Besides,  as  they 
themselves  declare,  the  Magyar  turn  of  thought  is  of 
nearer  kin  to  central  Asia  than  to  Greece  or  Germany. 
It  does  not  take  kindly  to  such  mysteries  as  trinity,  atone- 
ment, or  the  like.      It  likes  to   rationalize,  they  say,  and 


EDICT  OF  RELIGIOUS  FREEDOM,  1568.  IO7 

inclines  easily  to  simpler  forms  of  faith.  Thus  the  Reform, 
at  its  headquarters  in  Klausenburg,  went  steadily  in  the 
direction  taken  by  its  most  eloquent  preacher.  The  Town 
Council  gave  him,  too,  its  official  support.  For  some  years 
(1559-66)  he  labored  chiefly  in  the  work  of  education, 
seeing  clearly  that  the  task  he  had  begun  must  be  given 
soon  to  younger  hands:  thus  we  find  him  not  only  court 
preacher,  but  head  of  what  is  at  this  day  the  most  impor- 
tant university  of  Transylvania.  The  influence  of  Blan- 
drata  and  of  the  prince's  mother,  Isabella,  worked  mean- 
while powerfully  for  the  new  and  free  theology  he  taught. 
His  final  position  seems  to  have  been  first  distinctly  taken 
in  1566,  in  the  course  of  a  discussion  he  was  led  into  with 
one  of  the  university  professors,  Peter  Karolyi,  who  ex- 
pounded the  trinity  in  Melanchthon's  sense.  From  this 
time  forth  David's  Unitarian  conviction  is  openly  declared 
through  pulpit  and  press,  while  "  the  attitude  of  Kolozsvar 
and  of  all  Transylvania  is  changed  "  with  him. 

The  year  1568  carried  his  success  and  his  personal  em- 
inence to  their  highest  point.  In  January  a  royal  edict 
confirmed  by  authority  of  the  diet  was  published,  of  liber- 
ality hitherto  unknown  in  the  religious  world.  It  declared 
absolute  freedom  of  conscience  and  of  speech  ;  no  preacher 
should  be  subject  to  penalty  from  an  ecclesiastical  supericM' 
for  speaking  his  honest  thought ;  no  congregation  should 
be  debarred  from  listening  to  the  preacher  of  its  choice ; 
no  man  should  suffer  civil  penalty  for  his  opinion,  "since 
faith  is  the  gift  of  God,  and  faith  comes  by  hearing,  and 
the  hearing  is  of  the  Word  of  God."  This  law  became  the 
substance  of  those  constitutional  liberties  granted  to  the 
"  four  religions,"  which  have  continued  down  to  our  day. 
A  little  later,  the  name  "  Unitarian  "  was  well  recognized 
as  that  of  the  now  dominant  faith — before  this,  known  as 
"  the  Klausenburg  Confession  " — which  remained  for  more 


I08  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  v. 

than  fifty  years  the  prevailing  type  of  the  Reformed  behef. 
It  is  an  honorable  distinction  that  this  first  and  only  Uni- 
tarian triumph  in  the  policy  of  a  sovereign  state  declared 
not  the  supremacy  of  its  own  belief,  but  the  equal  liberty 
of  all. 

Two  months  later  was  held  a  public  debate,  in  Latin, 
lasting  ten  days,  at  the  residence  and  in  presence  of  the 
prince,  who  listened  attentively  to  the  proceedings.  Five 
disputants  spoke  on  each  side,  David's  chief  opponent 
being  Peter  Melius,  a  Calvinist  "  bishop  "  summoned  from 
Hungary,  a  zealous  defender  of  the  trinity.  *'  This  was 
the  first  great  open  controversy  "  betw-een  the  parties  ;  and, 
in  the  opinion  of  those  who  listened,  it  resulted  in  "  a  com- 
plete victory  of  the  Unitarian  doctrine."  David  carried 
with  him  the  full  sympathy  of  "  all  the  nobility  assembled 
there,"  as  well  as  the  enthusiastic  support  of  his  towns- 
people. "  The  whole  town  was  greatly  stirred  during  the 
time  of  the  debate ;  but  now,  when  they  heard  of  the 
result,  their  joy  was  boundless.  The  streets  of  Kolozsvar 
were  filled  with  hundreds  and  thousands  of  people,  anx- 
iously questioning  one  another  of  the  latest  news.  Could 
they  have  heard  tidings  more  delightful  than  that  their 
pastor,  long  so  greatly  loved,  from  this  time  forth  their 
bishop,  was  to  return  that  very  day?  The  long-expected 
carriage  arrived  at  last,  and  was  halted  in  the  great  open 
square.  Francis  David,  in  order  to  make  himself  seen  and 
heard,  got  up  on  a  large  round  stone  which  stood  at  a 
corner  of  the  street.^  Here  he  began  to  preach  the  vic- 
torious new  doctrine  of  Unitarianism.  The  people  broke 
out  in  shouts,  took  him  upon  their  shoulders,  and  carried 
him  to  the  Church  of  St.  Michael  in  the  midst  of  the  town, 
where   he   continued    his   address.      This   day   the   whole 

'  The  great  boulder  is  still  kept  in  the  church  precincts  as  a  proud  me- 
morial of  this  event. 


DEATH   OF  JOIIX  SIGISMUND,  1571,  109 

people  of  the  town  of  Kolozsvar  became  Unitarian !  Tlie 
example  was  followed  by  a  large  number  of  Transylvanian 
towns,  each  of  which  carried  with  it  the  entire  neighbor- 
hood. At  this  time  more  than  four  hundred  preachers  [425 
congregations]  were  Unitarian  by  profession.  In  thirteen 
higher  schools  and  colleges,  besides,  that  doctrine  was 
taught  by  able  professors,  several  of  whom  were  refugees 
from  foreign  lands."' 

Another  debate  was  held  in  October  of  the  next  year, 
in  Hungary,  and  in  the  Magyar  tongue.  It  lasted  six 
days,  and  was  attended  by  a  large  crowd,  including  the 
prince,  who  often  interposed  with  his  own  remarks.  On 
the  last  day,  as  the  discussion  seemed  to  grow  personal 
and  futile,  he  closed  it  with  these  characteristic  words: 
"  Being  appointed  by  the  grace  of  God  prince  of  this  land, 
we  ha\"e  designed,  according  to  our  royal  office,  to  care  for 
the  souls  of  our  subjects  as  well  as  for  their  bodies,  that 
they  may  grow  in  the  truth  and  be  free  from  antichristian 
error.  We  wish,  also,  to  show  the  falsehood  of  the  name 
Turks,  by  which  we  are  called  in  foreign  countries.  But 
we  see  that  the  party  opposed  make  only  indecisive  and 
evasive  answers.  If  they  desire  a  public  discussion  with 
our  preacher,  Francis  David,  they  may  dispute  when  and 
where  they  will  in  our  own  country.  We  shall  always 
cause  our  preacher  to  present  himself,  and  they  may  come 
freely,  without  harm.  But  now,  since  thjey  go  about  the 
truth,  giving  no  direct  reply,  and  since  other  public  duties 
call  us  back  to  Transylvania,  we  put  an  end  to  the  debate." 

John  Sigismund  lived  to  complete  his  work  by  the  great 
charter  of  religious  freedom,  announced  in  1571,  dying  on 
the  14th  of  May  in  that  year,  without  an   heir  to  his  title. 

1  l''roni  the  account  by  Professor  lioros.  Among  tlie  refugees  was  James 
I'aleoldgus,  a  native  flreek  of  Chios,  wlio  was  hurncd  for  heresy  at  Rome  in 
1585.     lie  silled  ardently  with  I'Vancis  David  in  his  discussion  with  Socinus. 


I  lO  THE    UXITARIANS.  [Chap.  v. 

A  change  soon  came  in  the  fortunes  of  the  Unitarian 
Church.  Two  candidates  for  the  vacant  throne  appeared : 
Caspar  Bekes,  of  Wallachian  blood  but  Unitarian  in  faith, 
who  was  supported  by  the  Szeklers ;  and  Stephen  Bathori, 
best  known  for  his  great  fighting  quahty.  The  latter  was 
victorious,  by  Turkish  help,  in  a  sharp  battle ;  and  Bekes 
fled  to  Poland,  his  partisans  suffering  death  or  confisca- 
tion of  their  estates. 

Stephen  Bathori  is  generally  called  a  Catholic,^  though 
he  was  understood  to  be  a  Protestant  by  the  Poles  when, 
four  years  later,  they  elected  him  as  their  king.  Probably 
his  religion  was  that  of  a  soldier,  disdainful  of  creeds, 
choosing  only  on  public  grounds  to  ally  himself  with  the 
strongest.  His  four  years'  rule  was  upright  and  just,  scru- 
pulous to  protect  established  rights.  The  Unitarian  body, 
though  weakened  by  its  great  loss,  seems  during  liis  time 
to  have  had  nothing  in  the  acts  of  the  government  to  com- 
plain of.  His  own  declaration  was,  Rex  sum  popiilonim, 
non  conscicntianini.  "  Cod,"  said  he,  "  has  reserved  to 
himself  three  things :  to  create  something  out  of  nothing, 
to  know  the  future,  and  to  rule  the  conscience." 

His  brother  Christopher,  who  succeeded  him  from  1575 
to  1 58 1,  was  soon  found  to  be  more  or  less  openly  under 
Jesuit  control.  His  policy,  we  are  told,  was  to  weaken  the 
Protestants  by  fomenting  dissensions  among  them.  In 
1579  he  gave  over  to  the  Jesuits  one  of  the  chief  Unita- 
rians schools  (that  at  Gyulafejervar) ;  and  "  he  only  waited 
the  opportunity  to  give  Unitarianism  its  death-blow." 
The  opportunity  was  offered  in  a  difference  that  grew 
into  personal  bitterness  between  its  two  most  conspicuous 
leaders.  This  difference  is  said  by  one  account  to  have 
arisen  as  early  as  1574  from  some  scandal  (vaguely  referred 
to  as  scclus  Italiciiiii)  touching  the  morals  of  Blandrata.    The 

1  See  the  note  on  p.  84,  above. 


DAVID  AXD  BLAXDRATA.  Ill 

open  ground  of  it  was  "  innovation  of  doctrine  "  charged 
against  David.  It  would  seem  that  Blandrata  had  kept 
his  place  and  something  of  his  influence  as  court  physician  ; 
and  he  would  naturally  feel,  or  affect,  a  jealousy  at  what- 
ever might  risk  the  fortunes  of  the  body  he  was  one  of  the 
chief  founders  of.  At  least,  he  showed  marks  of  a  real 
and  even  generous  concern  for  its  interest,  when  he  was  at 
so  much  pains  and  personal  cost  to  prevent  the  difference 
coming  to  an  open  breach  by  procuring  the  mediation  of 
Faustus  Socinus,  the  highest  in  repute  among  Unitarian 
scholars  of  that  day. 

He  had  not  measured  the  moral  quality  of  the  man  he 
had  to  do  with, — a  man  swift,  bold,  confident  in  asserting 
his  opinion,  not  hesitating  at  any  open  step  his  new  con- 
viction might  demand.  At  forty-six  we  found  him  still  a 
Catholic,  with  Lutheran  sympathies  he  never  attempted 
to  disguise ;  at  fifty-six,  in  the  ranks  of  the  more  advanced 
Genevan  party  ;  not  till  two  years  later,  defined  in  his  posi- 
tion as  a  Unitarian.  Following  the  same  path  a  little  far- 
ther, wc  now  find  him,  at  sixty-eight,  denying  that  cardinal 
doctrine  of  the  most  advanced  theology  as  yet  known,  that 
Divine  honors  are  to  be  ascribed,  and  prayer  is  to  be  ad- 
dressed, to  Christ,  as — since  his  resurrection  and  ascension 
into  glory — a  real  though  subordinate  deity.  We  have 
seen,  in  the  story  of  the  Polish  Socinians,  how  tenaciously 
thc\-  held  to  this  article  of  faith,  and  how  they  appealed  to 
it  as  their  ground  (jf  Christian  consideration  in  the  dreary 
tragedy  of  their  dispersion.  To  renounce  it  was  in  their 
eyes  a  "  Judaizing"  apostasy.  And  we  have  not  to  won- 
der if  there  was  now,  among  the  Unitarians  of  Transyl- 
vania, sincere  difference  of  opinion,  with  a  genuine  dread 
of  losing  all  they  had  gained  if  only  they  should  take  this 
one  further  doubtful  step. 

To  this  sentiment,  or  apprehension,  Blandrata  now  ap- 


112  THE    UXITARIANS.  [CiiAi'.  v. 

pealed.  As  to  his  personal  motive  in  so  doing,  two  things 
lie  against  him.  Of  the  eighteen  articles  drawn  up  to  ex- 
hibit David's  position,'  Blandrata  is  accused  of  having 
forged  the  most  ofifensive  one,  that  which  denies  the  super- 
human birth  of  Jesus.  Further,  about  this  time,  for  some 
service  or  favor  unknown,  he  accepted  from  the  prince  the 
grant  of  three  villages,  largely  increasing  his  coveted  wealth. 
All  that  Christopher  Bathori  would  engage  to  do,  perhaps 
all  that  could  fairly  be  expected  of  him,  was  to  protect  the 
Unitarians  in  that  body  of  doctrine  which  they  held  and 
taught  when  their  charter  was  given  tliem.  The  demand 
of  the  more  orthodox,  that  Francis  David  should  be  put  to 
death  for  heresy,  he  disdained  and  refused.  The  question 
was  left  to  what  might  seem  a  fair  tribunal,  one  in  which 
Unitarian  theologians  made  a  part.  It  turned  upon  a  sin- 
gle point :  Was  Francis  David  guilty  of  innovation  of  doc- 
trine? We  are  surprised  to  find  that  only  one  preacher  of 
his  own  communion,  together  with  all  of  the  lay  nobility, 
had  the  conviction  or  the  courage  to  vote  him  innocent. 
The  formal  condemnation  and  the  sentence  lay  with  the 
prince,  who  adjudged  him  to  be  confined  for  life — strictly, 
but  with  some  alleviation  of  mercy,  such  as  the  company 
of  his  daughter  and  the  attendance  of  a  son.  The  sentence 
was  passed  on  the  2d  of  June.  Five  months  later,  Novem- 
ber 7,  1579,  he  died  in  a  dungeon  of  the  castle  at  Deva,  in 
his  seventieth  year. 

This  event  had  two  marked  effects  on  the  Unitarian  de- 
velopment. First,  those  few  churches  in  Hungary  proper 
in  nearest  sympathy  with  it  now  ceased  to  a\'o\v  that  sym- 
pathy, and  in  the  course  of  a  century  had  died  out  under 
the  pressure  of  Austrian  centralism,  to  be  revived  in  part 
not  till  our  day.-     Second,  the  free  intellectual  develop- 

1  Comp.irc  p.  64  (;il)ovc),  witli  note. 

2  The  district  about  tlie  town  of  Pecs,  in  western  Hungary,  was  for  some 


rOJJTICAL  CHANGES;  AUSTRIAN  BARBARITIES.    II3 

ment,  on  whicli  the  inner  growth  depends,  was  blighted  or 
dwarfed.  Unitanianism  could  subsist,  under  the  new  con- 
ditions, only  as  a  conservative  sect :  a  career,  it  might  be, 
useful  and  even  honorable,  but  without  glory,  and  making 
no  new  advances.  Its  right  of  holding  synods  had  already, 
in  1577,  been  limited  to  the  two  cities  of  Klausenburg  and 
Thorda ;  and  the  liberty  of  making  proselytes,  accorded  to 
other  Protestant  persuasions,  was  denied  to  this. 

As  a  conservative  sect,  however,  it  now  had  a  period  of 
fair  prosperity,  lasting  about  forty  years.  The  worship  of 
Christ  was  formally  embodied  in  its  established  ritual,  and 
the  neglected  rite  of  baptism  was  generally  revived.  An 
efficient  and  wise  successor  to  the  bishopric  was  appointed, 
Demetrius  Hunyadi,  who  served  nine  years  (1579-88). 
He  was  followed  by  George  Enyedi,  a  valiant  champion 
of  the  faith,  who  did  not  shrink,  in  public  address,  to 
"scourge"  the  vacillating  Sigismund,  last  of  the  three 
Bathoris,  who  was.  forced  in  1597  into  alHance  with  the 
Turks.  For  a  moment  the  hopes  of  the  Unitarian  body 
were  revived  under  the  heroic  Moses  Szekely,  a  man  of 
their  own  faith,  who  with  the  greater  part  of  the  Magyar 
nobles  fell  in  battle  near  Kronstadt  in  1603,  fighting  hope- 
lessly against  the  Turks  aided  by  "  the  voivodc  of  Walla- 
chia  with  his  wild  hordes."  ^  At  this  disastrous  period 
"  the  house  of  Hapsburg  carried  war  into  the  country. 
The  general,  Basta,  burned  the  Protestant  clergy  on  a  pile 
constituted  of  their  own  books.  Nay,  in  his  barbarity,  he 
even  flayed  some  of  them  alive  ;  and,  with  the  aid  of  a 
fanatical  priesthood,   he  brought   Transylvania  to  such  a 

time  a  place  of  refuge  for  their  more  liher.al  congregations.  It  is  worthy  of 
notice  tliat,  since  the  late  revival,  six  Unitarian  churches  are  already  gathered 
in  that  district. 

1  A  moiuiment  in  memory  of  the  dreadful  slaughter  he.ars  the  inscription: 
"  Qiios~;^t'iiiiit  civcs  hie  Traiisvh'ciuiu  coiuiit. 
llcii  !  pan'o  tiiiniilo  ijiiinita  niiiiii  Jnct-t  f" 


114  THE    UXITAKIANS.  [Chap.  v. 

terrible  famine,  that  even  human  corpses  were  not  safe 
before  the  gnawing  hunger.  Can  we  wonder,"  says  Mr. 
Fretwell,  the  generous  and  eloquent  champion  of  the  Hun- 
garian cause,  "  that  the  Calvinist  prince  of  Transylvania, 
Stephen  Bocskai,  called  in  the  aid  of  Mohammedans  to 
defend  Hungary  against  men  who  blasphemed  the  name 
of  the  Christian's  God  by  associating  it  with  such  villain- 
ies? And  can  we  wonder  that  the  Turk  despised  the 
Christians,  who  forgot  their  common  danger  in  sectarian 
animosities?  " 

For  a  time,  under  Bocskai  (1604-06),  came  a  fresh  re- 
vival of  hope.  The  churches  taken  from  the  Unitarians 
in  Klausenburg  were  restored.  The  Jesuits  were  expelled. 
A  reign  of  liberty  was  promised,  and  again  the  afflicted 
church  might  seem  well  able  to  hold  its  ground,  but  for 
the  dissension  sprung  upon  them  from  a  new  fanaticism. 
As  far  back  as  1588,  one  Andreas  Oszi,  a  land-holder  of 
some  consequence,  seeking  comfort  from  the  Bible  in  sor- 
row for  the  loss  of  his  three  sons,  came  to  be  possessed 
with  the  opinion  that  the  true  Sabbath  must  be  kept  on 
Saturday.  This  harmless  craze,  as  it  might  seem,  had 
tragic  consequences.  The  little  sect  that  followed  him 
included  some  among  the  Unitarian  Szeklers ;  and  the 
whole  body  were  perversely  made  to  suffer  for  it.  The 
famous  Bethlen  Gabor  (Gabriel  Bethlehem),  champion  of 
the  Protestants  in  Bohemia  early  in  the  Thirty  Years' 
War,  was  prince  of  Transylvania  from  16 13  to  1630:  a 
man  of  astonishing  fighting  resource  and  vigor,  who  at- 
tempted in  the  south  of  Germany  what  Gustavus  Adolphus 
just  after  him  effected  in  the  north  ;  of  the  hard  type  of 
the  narrow  religious  partisan  ;  a  bitter  Calvinist,  who  aimed 
to  make  the  Protestant  force  a  unit,  and  thus  irresistible. 
He    undertook   to  suppress  the    new   religious    disorder. 


JiETin.EX  (J.inOR  ;  S. I B/y.l  7: 1 A'/.-LV  COX'J'ROVERSY.    115 

Under  a  decree  called  the  Sininltancnui,  sanctioned  by  a 
synod  in  16 18,  permitting  different  sects  to  occupy  in  com- 
mon the  same  house  of  worship,  he  made  incjuisition  among 
the  Unitarians,  and  found  pretext  to  transfer  sixty-two  of 
tJieir  churches  to  the  Calvinists.  He  raided  their  coun- 
try with  three  hundred  troopers  headed  by  an  orthodox 
bishop,  making  show  of  chastising  the  Sabbatarians ;  and 
so,  in  his  own  fashion,  he  forced  a  religious  peace.  After 
the  deatli  of  Gabor  the  fanaticism  was  renewed  under  an 
able  leader,  Simon  Pecsi,  once  a  tutor  of  Oszi's  boys,  and  by 
him  made  his  heir.  Pecsi  had  been  employed  by  Gabor  as 
chancellor,  and  as  commissioner  to  carry  relief  to  Bohemia, 
but  failing  in  this  mission  had  been  cast  by  him  into  prison. 
Here,  brooding  over  his  evil  fate,  and  seeking  comfort  from 
the  same  source  with  his  old  employer  and  friend,  he  found 
it  under  the  same  form  of  belief,  and  left  his  prison  a  Sab- 
batarian zealot.  The  schism  was  quieted  in  1638,  under  a 
settlement  called  the  Coinplanatio  Dcesiana,  rec[uiring  new 
pledges  to  the  worship  of  Christ;  and  the  Sabbatarian 
party  disappears,  with  its  leader's  death,  in  1640. 

Since  that  great  loss  of  its  sixty-two  churches,  Unita- 
rianism  had  ceased  to  be  the  type  and  head  of  Protestant- 
ism in  Transylvania.  Even  in  Klausenburg,  its  chief  seat, 
one  fourth  of  its  civil  authority  was  by  law  conveyed  to 
Calvinists.  It  continued,  however,  to  enjoy  a  modest  and 
useful  security,  chiefly  occupied  in  the  sober  tasks  of  edu- 
cation. An  interesting  episode  of  this  period  of  quiet  was 
the  arrival  in  Hungary  of  nearly  four  hundred  exiles  in 
their  flight  from  Poland  under  the  barbarous  decree  of 
John  Ca.simir  in  1660.  They  were  set  upon  and  .spoiled 
by  robbers  on  the  way,  so  that  many  perished,  some  were 
scattered  abroad  in  Hungary,  and  thirty  or  forty  families 
only  found   refuge  at  length  in    hospitable    Klausenburg, 


Il6  J'lil^    iWlTAKlAXS.  [CiiAK  V. 

where  a  congregation  worshiped  in  the  Polish  tongue  as 
late  as  1792.^ 

With  the  overthrow  of  Turkish  power  in  1687  came  a 
new  series  of  political  changes  disastrous  to  the  Unitarian 
churches.  Transylvania  came  again,  as  a  province  of  Hun- 
gary, under  the  Austrian  rule,  whose  inexorable  centralism 
bore  hard  upon  it.  The  "  Leopoldine  Compact"  of  1691 
confirms,  it  is  true,  the  chartered  rights  of  the  several 
"  religions  "  ;  but  chartered  freedom  has  ever  weighed  light 
against  the  dull  bigotry  of  Hapsburg  sovereigns.  As  early 
as  1693  Unitarians  were  deprived  of  their  schools  in  Klau- 
senburg,  and  the  cathedral  church  that  had  been  theirs 
since  1568  was  coveted  for  Catholic  possession.  A  few 
years  later  (17 16)  that  church  was  seized  from  them  by 
military  force ;  and,  though  money  compensation  has  been 
ofTered  them  for  it  since,  they  have  refused,  choosing  to 
hold  their  legal  title,  which  they  hope  some  day  to  make 
good.  More  than  seventy  years  of  suppression  followed, 
which  might  be  called  a  chronic  persecution.  These  years 
included  all  of  the  reign  (1740-80)  of  the  "  heroic"  Maria 
Theresa,  who  recompensed  the  well-known  romantic  loyalty 
of  her  Hungarian  subjects  by  "  the  unprecedented  policy  of 
occupying  half  the  official  stations,  in  a  nation  of  Evangeli- 
cals, with  Catholics."  In  1721  the  church  at  Thorda  was 
taken,  in  1777  that  at  Kronstadt.  All  pubHc  offices  were 
forbidden  to  Unitarians,  costing  them  the  adhesion  of  many 
noble  families,  their  hereditary  leaders  :  for  why  should  they 
be  debarred  from  serving  their  country  in  the  only  way  they 
could?  "  Through  all  this  period  of  persecution,"  says  Mr. 
Fret  well,  "  the  Httle  band  of  Unitarians  in  the  Szeklerland 
remained  firm.  Of  them  an  old  Hungarian  chronicler  had 
written  that  they  were  more  severe  in  their  morals  than 

'  For  a  brief  Init  curious  account  of  tliis  exiled  community  see  Benko, 
"  Transsilvania,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  583  (Vienna,  1778). 


ST.   ABRAHAM;    KESrORATION   OF  17DL  WJ 

Other  Hungarians ;  and  a  Roman  Catholic  priest,  writing 
to  Vienna,  was  honest  enough  to  confess  that  they  pos- 
sessed great  economic  virtues,  were  diligent,  moral,  and 
orderly  men,  exemplary  in  the  performance  of  their  duties 
to  the  state.  He,  however,  asked  for  their  repression,  be- 
cause their  good  lives  were  a  recommendation  of  their  de- 
testable doctrine,  and  a  standing  reproach  to  the  impure 
lives  of  the  Catholic  priesthood." 

This  iniquitous  policy  was  continued  till  1791,  and  was 
in  some  points  even  worse  under  the  well-meant  but  formal 
and  pedantic  liberalism  of  Joseph  H.  (i  780-90),  who  aimed 
to  repress  the  independent  life  of  Hungary,  impo.sing 
everywhere  the  German  tongue  and  law.  Thus,  says 
Rath,  "  though  the  yoke  was  lighter,  yet  it  chafed  worse 
here  and  there."  This  season  of  depression  is  relieved,  for 
the  subjects  of  our  story,  by  the  genius  of  one  man,  "  the 
chief  master-builder,"  Michael  St.  Abraham,  "  their  eye, 
heart,  tongue,"  who  revived  their  faith,  restored  their  wor- 
ship, reconstructed  their  religious  body,  and  served  them 
well  as  bishop  for  twenty-one  years  (1737-58).  To  him 
the  Unitarian  churches  of  our  day  are  especially  indebted 
for  quickening  their  religious  life  by  the  appeal  at  every 
.synod  to  the  body  of  the  congregation,  so  saving  their 
church  order  from  being  the  mere  machinery  of  an  eccle- 
siastical caste. 

A  statute  of  the  year  1791  (copied  in  the  "  Sketch  "  by 
Bishop  Ferencz)  recognizes  in  full  the  liberties  of  the  four 
constitutional  "  religions  "  of  Transylvania.  This  was  the 
opening  act  of  the  present  era  of  revival.  Happily,  it  was 
followed  the  next  year  by  the  generous  bequest  of  a  sum 
equal  to  $40,000,  from  a  wealthy  land-holder,  Ladislas 
Szuki,  who  had  abstained  from  founding  a  family  that  the 
estate  he  had  enlarged  in  his  life  might  all  go  to  the  noblest 
of  objects  at  his  death.      This  endowment   has  made  pos- 


Il8  THE    UXITAKIANS.  [CiiAi'.  v. 

sible  the  larger  educational  work  of  the  present  centur)', 
including-  maintenance  of  the  college  at  Klausenburg,  with 
scholarships,  charities,  widows'  and  orphans'  funds,  and 
school  buildings  both  there  and  elsewhere.  Again,  in 
1857,  Paul  Augustinowitz,  a  descendant  of  Polish  exiles, 
bequeathed  his  whole  fortune  to  the  Unitarian  body, 
making  about  one  third  of  its  entire  endowment,  and  pro- 
viding that  one  sixth  of  the  income  shall  each  year  be 
added  to  the  principal.  These,  with  the  founding  of  a  law 
professorship  about  ten  years  earlier  by  Charles  Rediger, 
are  the  most  conspicuous  among  many  a  generous  efTort 
of  these  people  in  their  poverty  to  strengthen  the  work  of 
their  hands. 

Of  equal  and  possibly  even  greater  importance  has  been 
the  help  that  has  come  to  them  from  relations  of  sympathy 
newly  opened  with  the  western  world  of  religious  thought. 
In  1857  the  Austrian  authorities  demanded  proof  that  the 
Unitarian  churches  of  Transyhania,  impoverished  as  they 
were,  could  raise  the  means  required  to  keep  their  schools 
up  to  the  government  standard  ;  adding  the  insidious  offer 
to  furnish  aid  from  public  funds,  on  condition  of  controlling 
the  courses  of  instruction.  Then  rose  "  a  cry  of  terror  and 
of  pain."  In  their  need  an  appeal  was  made  by  Mr.  John 
Paget  to  generous  friends  in  PLngland,  who  came  to  their 
relief.  This  was  but  the  beginning.  It  was  followed  by 
the  endowment  of  a  scholarship  in  Manchester  New  College 
(now  of  Oxford),  which  brings  their  young  men  of  promise 
into  the  circles  of  highest  English  culture,  while  the  alli- 
ance is  strengthened  from  year  to  year  by  interchange  of 
hospitalities  on  occasions  of  special  public  interest.  Other 
endowments  have  followed,  of  which  the  best  known  is  a 
professorship  of  the  physical  sciences  founded  by  Mrs. 
Richmond,  of  Providence,  R.  I.,  and  enlarged  by  her  chil- 
dren in  1882. 


THE   PRKSEXr  SITUATIOX.  I  19 

The  Unitarians  of  TransjKania  have  in  their  hands,  as 
we  are  given  to  understand,  by  acknowledgment  of  other 
sects,  the  lead  in  the  great  work  of  general  education. 
Their  numbers,  it  is  true,  are  small  and  nearly  stationary.^ 
But  the  value  of  their  work  is  not  to  be  reckoned  by  num- 
bers. That  value  was  testified  in  person  by  the  emperor 
Francis  Joseph  on  a  recent  visit.  And,  as  evidence  of  the 
position  they  have  reached,  it  may  be  added  that,  at  the 
founding  of  the  first  Unitarian  Church  in  Budapest,  the 
national  capital,  October  2,  1881,  "the  Minister  of  Edu- 
cation, a  Catholic,  led  the  procession  of  guests  in  attend- 
ance, followed  by  the  Secretary  of  State,  after  whom 
came  the  Calvinist  Superintendent,  the  Privy-Councilor 
BanfTy,  three  Ministerial  Councilors  (Unitarian),  three  Par- 
liamentary Deputies,  our  historian  Alexis  Jakab  [keeper 
of  the  archives],  and  many  members  of  Parliament." 
Catholic  and  Calvinist  may  be  found  to  associate  without 
jealous}-  in  Unitarian  assemblies,  and  they  accord  to  Uni- 
tarians (we  are  assured)  the  foremost  place  in  the  educa- 
tional field. 

In  their  religious  work  we  specially  note  two  things: 
first,  the  fidelity  with  which  this  communion  sustains  its 
organized  church  life,  a  formal  and  official  sanctity  being 
given  to  institutions  or  rites  much  more  marked  than  in 
most  liberal  churches  farther  west ;  and,  second,  a  whole- 
some, secular,  out-door  temper  in  religious  things,  having 
(if  I  may  venture  to  trust  my  own  judgment  of  them)  less 
than  we  are  accustomed  to  see,  nearer  home,  of  an  emo- 
tional or  purely  sentimental  piety.  There,  as  elsewhere, 
may  be  slackness  in  churcli  attendance,  indifference  to 
forms  of  belief,  a  marked  drift  to   rationalism  in  opinion — 

1   In  iS6q,  number  of  churches,  106;  of  meml)ers,  53,5^9. 
^^  "    18S1.       "         "         "  106;  "  53,S62. 

"  Tlie  funded  property  of  the  country  congregations  amounts  to  something 
over  $100,000;  tlieir  total  iiulel)tedness  is  only"$lOOO"  (1881). 


120  THE    UXITARIANS.  [CiiAi'.  v. 

not  diminished,  certainly,  by  the  high  honor  paid  to  the 
memory  of  Francis  David ;  but  along  with  these  are  an 
energy,  fidelity,  devoted  diligence  in  their  work  well  de- 
serving note.  One  of  the  sturdy  country  parsons  whom  I 
met  held  his  daily  service  at  four  o'clock  on  summer  morn- 
ings, when  field  laborers  and  harvesters,  men  and  women, 
would  leave  rake,  sickle,  or  basket  at  the  porch,  while  he 
invoked  a  blessing  upon  their  daily  task.  And  th'e  same 
spirit,  of  a  simple  reverence  and  kindliness,  may  be  said  to 
characterize  alike  the  labors  of  the  eloquent  bishop  in  his 
chair,  and  of  the  instructors  in  school  or  university. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

ENGLISH    PIONEERS. 

We  have  seen  that  the  Unitarian  opinion  o;ained  a  foot- 
hohi  in  England  (hiring  the  early  years  of  the  Reformation, 
particularly  in  connection  with  the  "  Strangers'  Churcli," 
established  in  1550,  and  that  it  was  trodden  out  in  the  reign 
of  Queen  Mary,  under  the  same  persecution  with  other 
forms  of  antipapal  heresy.  In  Elizabeth's  time,  a  new 
name,  "Puritan,"  began  presently  to  be  heard  (1564),  de- 
fining the  new  and  advanced  type  of  Protestantism,  wdiich 
found  itself  more  and  more  at  variance  with  the  Established 
Church.  The  open  battle  was,  however,  not  at  first  be- 
tween forms  of  faith.  It  was  rather,  as  in  the  controversy 
of  Cartwright  and  Hooker,  between  forms  of  church  gov- 
ernment, Presbyterian  against  Prelate.  Individual  belief 
enjoyed  a  certain  tolerance,  or  neglect.  We  see  this  in  the 
absolute  freedom  of  discourse  on  religious  things  (when 
touched  at  all)  among  the  great  wits  of  that  age,  as  Shake- 
speare, Spenser,  Bacon,  who  appear  wholly  unmoved  by 
the  religious  passions  of  their  day,  so  flagrant  just  then 
upon  the  Continent.  Such  formal  orthodoxy  even  as  Bacon 
professed  was  at  a  later  day,  when  Independency  had  begun 
to  show  its  head.  Statesmen  like  l^urleigh,  Walsingham, 
even  Leicester  and  Essex,  are  reckoned  Puritan  in  faith, 
but  were  clearly  for  a  wholesome  liberty  in  thinking. 
Raleigh,  who  abundantly  represents  the  heroic  side  of  the 
national  struggle  against  popery,  is  even  held  to  have  been 
forerunner  and  chief  of  the  P^nglish  Deists.      Those  strong 

121 


125  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  vi. 

and  brilliant  men  of  the  world  gave  to  that  birth-time  of 
England  its  true  stamp.  Protestantism  with  them,  and 
as  the  Queen  herself  was  forced  to  put  up  with  it,  meant 
national  independence,  a  powerful  check  against  Catholic 
intolerance,  hearty  abhorrence  of  Rome,  and  of  Spain  as 
the  champion  of  Rome. 

It  is,  then,  with  a  painful  shock  we  learn  that,  in  1575, 
the  writ  of  evil  fame  "for  the  burning  of  an  heretic"  (is- 
sued in  1 40 1  by  Henry  IV.,  to  make  his  peace  with  the 
church  after  his  usurping  of  the  royal  power), ^  was  waked 
from  a  slumber  of  seventeen  years,  to  extirpate  a  foreign 
heresy.  A  little  congregation  of  "  Arian  "  Baptists — ap- 
parently Dutch  refugees  from  the  horrors  of  Alva's  rule — 
meeting  in  secret,  were  arrested  on  Easter  Sunday.  Thirty 
of  its  members  were  imprisoned,  fourteen  were  banished 
on  pain  of  death,  five  died  in  dungeons,  two  were  burned 
alive  on  the  22d  of  the  following  July.  "These  unhappy 
wretches,"  says  Fuller,  "  more  obstinate  than  the  rest,  died 
in  great  horror,  with  crying  and  roaring."  Nonconformists 
had  received  due  ecclesiastical  warning,  two  years  before. 
The  Queen  had  assented  to  an  article  declaring  "  that  a 
Christian  government  may  lawfully  punish  heretics  with 
death."  Still,  Elizabeth  seems  to  have  felt  that  some  de- 
fense of  the  act  was  due  to  the  public  conscience.  She 
feared,  it  is  said,  lest  it  might  be  charged  against  her  "  that 
she  was  more  earnest  in  asserting  her  own  safety  than 
God's  honor"  if  she  should  put  to  death  political  conspira- 
tors and  spare  those  who  had  aflfronted  the  Divine  majesty. 

But  the  heresy  survived,  and  took  a  form  more  definitely 
Unitarian.  One  John  Lewes  is  recorded  to  have  been 
"burned  at  Norwich,  September  18,  1583,  for  denying  the 
godhead  of  Christ."     Two  years  later  a  clergyman,  Francis 

1  This  writ  was  repealed  in    1677,  when   "  every   I'ishop  except  one  was 
against  the  repeal." 


rERSECuriox  in  England.  123 

Ket,  was  burned  at  tlie  same  place  for  the  same  offense. 
Most  of  the  so-called  martyrdoms  of  Elizabeth's  reii,ni  may 
fairly  be  ascribed  to  political  conspiracies  and  alarms.  The 
four  already  recounted  would  seem  to  have  been  the  only 
martyrs  for  mere  opinion.  'These  were  concessions  to  an 
intolerance  more  deadly  than  her  own.  The  Queen,  it  is 
evident,  had  to  keep  the  zeal  of  her  ecclesiastics  sharply  in 
hand. 

The  last  example  in  this  kind  to  be  noted  is  under  the 
reign  of  James,  whose  Protestant  policy  was  unhappily 
dwarfed  and  warped  by  his  conceit  of  a  "  kingcraft  "  that 
should  purchase  terms  of  amity  with  the  Catholic  reaction, 
then  drifting  steadily  towards  the  horrors  of  the  Thirty 
Years'  War.  At  Smithfield,  in  16 12,  Bartholomew  Legate 
— a  man  "  in  person  comely,  complexion  black,  age  about 
forty  years,  of  a  bold  spirit,  confident  carriage,  fluent 
tongue,  excellently  skilled  in  the  Scriptures" — and  at 
Lichfield,  Edward  Wightman,  were  burned  at  the  stake  as 
"  Anabaptists  and  Arianizers."  Thus,  says  an  historian 
of  the  Baptists,  "  this  sect  had  the  honor  of  leading  the 
way  [in  1535]  and  bringing  up  the  rear  of  all  the  martyrs 
who  were  burned  alive  in  England."  It  had  been  found 
more  expedient,  writes  Thomas  Fuller,  that  heretics  "should 
silently  and  privately  waste  away  in  prisons,  rather  than 
to  grace  them  and  amuze  others  with  the  solemnity  of  a 
public  execution."  '(Vol.  ii.,  p.  64.) 

The  humble  names  now  recorded  are  obscure  waymarks 
on  the  road  that  England  was  painfully  traveling  towards 
a  complete  religious  liberty.  The  Anglican  Church,  as  we 
are  told,  "under  the  Tudors  was  Erastian  and  Cahinist; 
under  the  Stuarts  it  was  sacerdotal  and  Arminian."  So 
long,  however,  as  the  government  was  Protestant  in  name, 

^  Nearly  eight  thousand  arc  said  to  have  thus  perished  in  the  evil  days  fol- 
lowini:  tlu-  Restoration  of  1660. 


124  ^^^    UNITARIANS.  [Ciiai>.  vi. 

there  was  no  formal  secession  of  Presbyterian  from  Episco- 
pal. On  one  hand,  Archbishop  Laud  is  said  to  have  been 
the  strongest  defense  of  the  national  church  as  against 
papacy.  On  the  other  hand,  under  shelter  of  that  eccle- 
siastical alliance,  the  Puritan  cause  was  slowly  gaining 
strength  for  the  struggle  that  lay  before  it,  little  heeding 
that  it  but  led  the  way  to  the  more  daring  assault  of  Inde- 
pendency. 

Puritanism,  hitherto  best  known  under  such  names  as 
Calvinist  and  Presbyterian,  has  been  defined  as  implying 
"  Scripturalism,  a  severe  morality,  popular  sympathy,  and 
ardent  attachment  to  civil  freedom."  A  vigorous  attempt 
was  made  to  hold  it  in  check  when,  in  1640,  Laud  issued 
a  series  of  Canons,^  the  fourth  of  them  being  in  condemna- 
tion of  "  the  damnable  and  cursed  heresy  of  Socinianism." 
Here  we  are  struck  by  the  emergence  of  a  new  name  in 
English  theological  parties.  The  Unitarians  of  Poland  had 
now  just  begun  to  decline  from  their  prosperity  and  influ- 
ence. Two  years  before,  they  had  felt  the  first  hard  blow 
of  persecution  in  their  destruction  of  their  college  and  press 
at  Racovia.  The  effect  of  this  blow  would  naturally  be  to 
scatter  their  opinions,  like  sparks,  over  a  wider  circle.  And  a 
few  points  will  here  show  how  they  had  drawn  such  atten- 
tion in  England  as  to  call  forth  Laud's  special  animosity. 

As  early  as  1614,  within  ten  years  after  the  death  of 
Socinus,  the  "  Racovian  Catechism,"  in  a  Latin  version,  had 
been  publicly  burned  in  London,  and  its  circulation,  so  far 
as  might  be,  had  been  suppressed.  In  16 16  the  first  Eng- 
lish church  and  congregation  of  Independents  had  been 
gathered  by  Henry  Jacob,  a  disciple  and  companion  of  John 
Robinson  in  Leyden,  who  afterwards  joined  the  Plym- 
outh colony  in  America.  With  avowed  Independency 
came  increased  liberty  of  thinking  in  the  body  of  the  peo- 

1  These  will  l)e  found  in  Neal's  "  History  of  tlic  I'uritans,"  vol.  ii. 


WILLIAM   CIIILLIXGWORTII.  I  25 

pie.  In  1635  appeared  Chillingworth's  i^reat  work  in  de- 
fense of  Protestantism,  in  which  he  made  his  celebrated 
declaration  that  "  the  Bible,  the  ]5ible,  the  Bible  only  is 
the  relit^ion  of  Protestants."  This  necessarily  carried  with 
it  the  freedom  of  private  criticism  and  interpretation. 
Chillingworth  was  a  writer  who  struck  hard  and  sharp  in 
controversy.  Hobbes  likens  him  to  "  a  lusty  fighting  fellow, 
that  did  drive  his  enemies  before  him,  but  would  often 
give  his  owne  party  terrible  smart  back-blowes."  His 
position  was  exactly  that  contended  for  from  the  beginning 
by  the  Polish  Unitarians ;  and  it  is  no  wonder  that  the 
charge  of  "  Socinianism  "  was  at  once  made  against  him. 
This  was  done  in  1636,  in  a  pamphlet  by  a  Jesuit,  Edward 
Knott.  In  his  first  chapter  Knott  "  gives  an  account  of 
the  Socinians,  in  which  he  does  everything  in  his  power  to 
render  them  odious  in  the  eyes  of  the  public  "  ;  while  in 
the  second  chapter  he  makes  a  point  against  the  Church 
of  England  (which  demands  outward  conformity  only),  that 
it  has  no  infallible  Head,  like  Rome,  and  so  invites  laxity 
and  easiness  of  belief.  The  charge  was  followed  up  against 
Chillingworth  with  extreme  virulence  until  his  death,  in 
1644,  particularly  by  P'rancis  Cheynell,  rector  of  Petworth. 
Cheynell  published  in  1643  a  work  entitled  "  The  Rise, 
Growth,  and  Danger  of  Socinianism,  together  with  a  Plain 
Discovery  of  a  Desperate  Design  of  Corrupting  the  Protest- 
ant Religion,"  ascribed  to  Chillingworth,  and  "  encouraged 
by  the  doctrines  and  practices  of  the  Arminian,  Socinian, 
and  Popisii  party."  So  far,  indeed,  he  carried  his  animos- 
ity, that  at  Chillingworth's  burial  he  cast  into  the  grave  a 
copy  of  his  great  "  Defense,"  saying,  "  Get  thee  gone,  thou 
cursed  book,  which  has  seduced  so  many  precious  souls! 
Get  thee  gone,  thou  corrupt,  rotten  book — earth  to  earth, 
dust  to  dust!  Go,  rot  with  thy  author!  "  The  olTcnse  was, 
to  have  "  run  madde  witii  reason  "  and  tolerated  heresy. 


126  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  vi. 

A  few  dates,  carefully  followed  down,  will  serve  to  show 
the  steps  by  which  Independency  asserted  itself  against 
both  Presbyterianism  and  Prelacy,  until  the  time  of  its 
short  triumph  under  Cromwell,  and  the  assault  made  upon 
it  in  all  its  forms  by  the  Presbyterian  party. 

The  challenge  thrown  out  by  Laud  in  1640  was  in- 
stantly taken  up  by  the  Puritan  party  in  the  Long  Parlia- 
ment, which  met  that  year.  But  the  Presbyterians  claimed, 
as  absolutely  as  Canterbury  or  Rome,  to  hold  a  form  of 
church  government  divinely  ordained,  of  full  authority 
over  belief  and  conduct ;  and  the  same  weapons  that  had 
beaten  off  their  ancient  foe,  the  Hierarchy,  they  now  turned 
against  their  new  enemies,  the  Independents.  From  many 
a  passage  in  the  magnificent  pamphlets  put  forth  by  Milton, 
from  1 64 1  to  1644,  we  see  with  what  enthusiasm,  elo- 
quence, and  splendid  hope  the  battle  was  kept  ujd  on 
the  other  side.  The  Independents  in  King  James's  time 
were,  as  Lord  Bacon  had  scornfully  said  of  them,  "  but  a 
very  small  number  of  very  silly  and  base  people,  here  and 
there  in  corners  dispersed."  Hunted  out  of  England  in 
1608,  finding  in  Holland  the  secure  shelter  from  which 
they  sent  their  colonists  back  into  England  and  beyond 
the  sea,  they,  had  in  1616  a  single  congregation  with  vigor 
enough  to  live  ;  and  "  from  this  as  a  nucleus  Independency 
gradually  spread  through  England,  and,  in  spite  of  the 
harsh  measures  of  Laud  and  the  court,  came  in  the  middle 
of  the  century  to  occupy  a  dominant  place  among  the 
powers  by  which  the  destinies  of  England  were  swayed." 

While  the  struggle  of  parties  in  the  Long  Parliament 
was  going  on,  and  during  the  sessions  of  the  Westminster 
Assembly  (1643-48),  the  controversy  grew  more  bitter. 
The  Presbyterians,  under  their  "  League  and  Covenant," 
hoped  to  force  all  of  Britain  and  her  dependencies  into  one 
uniform  pattern  of  church  government:   this  led,  indeed, 


ATTACK  OX  IXDEPEXDEXCY.  127 

to  the  sending  of  a  special  embassy  from  New  England  in 
1644,  to  protect  its  threatened  system  of  Congregationalism. 
In  the  same  year  appeared  the  first  of  a  series  of  volumes 
carrying  on  the  attack  on  the  Presbyterian  side,  whose  very 
titles  carry  in  them  the  venom  of  the  debate.  The  attack 
had  been  provoked  by  the  variety  of  sects  and  the  excessive 
laxity  of  opinion,  leading  to  many  a  scandal  and  disorder, 
which  mere  independency  had  quickly  run  into.  "  License 
they  mean  when  they  cry  liberty,"  expostulated  Milton; 
"  asses,  apes,  and  dogs,"  he  did  not  scruple  to  call  the  con- 
troversialists of  his  day.  A  few  titles  will  show  sufficiently 
the  general  line  followed  in  this  battle  of  the  books. 

A  bitter  attack  on  Chillingworth,  it  will  be  remembered, 
had  appeared  in  1643,  "^  Cheynell's  "Rise,  Growth,  and 
Danger  of  Socinianism."  The  next  year  Thomas  Edwards 
published  his  '' Antapologia  [reply  to  a  defense  by  Philip 
Nye  and  others],  wherein  are  handled  the  controversies  of 
these  times,"  including  a  particular  mention  of  the  Socin- 
ians.  The  "  Antajjologia  "  is  offered  as  "  a  true  glass  to  be- 
hold the  faces  of  Presbytery  and  Independency  in,  with  the 
beauty,  order,  and  strength  of  the  one,  and  the  deformity, 
disorder,  and  weakness  of  the  other."  Its  tone,  however, 
is  moderate,  not  to  say  dull,  beside  that  of  its  more  famous 
sequel,  published  in  1645,  under  the  title — 

'"Gajignciia:  A  Catalogue  and  Discovery  of  Many  of  the 
Errors,  Heresies,  Blasphemies,  and  Pernicious  Practices  of 
the  Sectaries  of  this  Time."  Of  errors,  one  hundred  and 
seventy-six  are  catalogued,  ranging  from  antitrinitarian 
"  blasphemies  "  to  dangerous  and  lax  assertions,  very  nu- 
merous, in  which  sentiment  disdains  the  bounds  of  reason. 
Among  "pernicious  practices  of  the  Sectaries,"  conspic- 
uous are  disorders  introduced  by  Anabaptists,  Antinomians, 
and  Familists  (disciples  of  Free  Love,  as  we  should  call 
them),    violating   all    decorum   of   public    worship.       Such 


128  THE    UNITAKJAXS.  [Chap.  \i. 

things,  the  writer  holds,  must  be  put  down  by  force. 
Toleration,  he  says,  "  is  the  grand  design  of  the  Devil,  his 
masterpiece  and  chief  engine  he  works  by  at  this  time  to 
uphold  his  tottering  kingdom."  An  appendix,  or  continu- 
ation, published  two  years  later,  is  in  its  title  "  The  Casting 
Down  of  the  Last  and  Strongest  Hold  of  Satan :  A  Treatise 
against  Toleration." 

Again  we  have,  in  1646,  "The  Utter  Routing  of  the 
Whole  Army  of  all  the  Independents  and  Sectaries,"  by 
John  Bostwick,  whose  character  and  temper  appear  suf- 
ficiently in  its  title. 

In  1647  appeared  the  fourth  edition  of  a  book  by 
Ephraim  Pagitt,  entitled  "  Heresiography :  or,  A  Descrip- 
tion of  the  Heretickes  and  Sectaries  sprung  up  in  these 
Later  Times,"  both  "  Socinians,  who  teach  that  Christ  dyed 
not  to  satisfie  for  our  sins,"  and  "  Arrians,  who  deny  the 
Deity  of  Christ." 

Finally,  in  1648,  was  published  "A  Survey  of  the  Spirit- 
ual Antichrist,  Opening  the  Secrets  of  Familism  and  Anti- 
nomianism."  This  interests  us,  in  particular,  by  its  recital 
of  the  story  of  Ann  Hutchinson  and  her  following  in  Bos- 
ton twelve  years  before,  with  its  tragic  sequel. 

These  last  items  bear  upon  our  present  topic  chiefly  as 
part  of  the  process  that  led  to  the  "  Draconic  "  ordinance 
against  blasphemy  and  heresy,  passed  in  May,  1648.  This 
ordinance  was  the  final  effort  of  the  Presbyterian  party  to 
suppress  freedom  of  discussion  by  public  law.  Its  imme- 
diate occasion  was  a  translation  of  "Satan's  Stratagems" 
(a  treatise  by  Jacopo  Aconzio,  an  Italian  jurist  and  engi- 
neer of  Elizabeth's  time  '),  which  had  led  to  an  investiga- 
tion of  Socinianism  at  Oxford.  "  It  enacted  that  all  such 
persons  as  willingly,  by  preaching,  teaching,  printing,  or 
writing,  maintain  and  publish  that  the  Father  is  not  God, 

1  See  Cantii,  vol.  iii.,  p.  S2  ;  also  Prof,  lionet- Maury's  "  (Irigines." 


CROMWELL'S  "AK7VCLES";  BAXTER'S  " ESSENTLALS."  129 

the  Son  is  not  God,  or  the  Holy  Ghost  is  not  God,  or  that 
they  three  are  not  One  Internal  God,  or  that  in  Hke  man- 
ner maintain  and  pubHsh  that  Christ  is  not  equal  with  the 
Father,  shall  be  adjudged  (guilty  of  felony.  And  in  case 
the  party  upon  his  trial  shall  not  abjure  his  said  error  and 
defense  and  maintenance  of  the  same,  he  shall  suffer  the 
pains  of  death,  as  in  case  of  felony,  without  benefit  of 
clergy." 

Seven  months  later,  "  Pride's  Purge "  had  effectually 
destroyed  the  power  of  the  Presbyterian  party  in  Parlia- 
ment, and  the  onlinance  was  ne\er  carried  intt)  full  effect. 
Independency  was  already  dominant  in  the  army.  A  new 
era  of  tolerance  had  begun  when,  in  1653,  Cromwell  an- 
nounced his  "Articles  for  the  govermnent  of  the  Common- 
wealth." These,  while  they  "recommend"  the  Christian 
religion  as  "  the  public  profession  of  these  nations,"  and 
guarantee  that  it  shall  be  duly  maintained  and  taught,  add 
that  "  none  shall  be  compelled  by  penalties  or  otherwise  " 
to  such  public  profession,  "  but  that  endeavors  be  used  to 
win  them  by  sound  doctrine  and  the  example  of  a  good 
conversation."  They  add,  further,  that  all  professing 
Christian  belief  "  shall  be  protected  in  the  profession  of  the 
faith  and  exercise  of  their  religion,  .  .  .  provided  this  lib- 
erty be  not  extended  to  Popery  or  Prelacy,  nor  to  such  as, 
under  the  profession  of  Christ,  hold  forth  and  practice 
licentiousness."  ^  Further,  to  explain  the  true  meaning  of 
these  articles,  Richard  Baxter^  in  this  same  year  (1653) 
drew  up  an  enumeration  of  the  "  essentials  "  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  having  been  "  sent  for  up  to  London "  for 
this  purpose.  These  "  essentials  "  were  the  Decalogue, 
the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  the  Apostles'  Creed.  Some  friends 
objected  that  his  terms  were  so  broad  as  to  include  both 
Papists  and  Socinians  ;    upon  which,  he  says,  "  I  answered 

1  Articles  xxxv-xxxvii. 


1 30  THE    UNITARIAXS.  [Chap.  vi. 

them,  '  So  much  the  better,  and  so  much  the  fitter  it  is  to 
be  the  matter  of  our  concord.'  " 

To  complete  this  record  of  the  Commonweahh  period, 
the  following  may  be  added,  (i)  In  1655  was  published 
"The  Gospel  Defense"  {Vi?idicicB  Evaiigcliae)  of  John 
Owen,  most  eminent  of  scholars  among  the  Independents, 
then  doing  good  service  at  Oxford  in  upholding  the  cause 
of  sound  learning  in  the  university.  It  was  written  to 
counteract  the  Unitarian  heresy,  too  well  protected  under 
the  toleration  enforced  by  Cromwell.'  "The  evil  is  at  the 
doore,"  he  says;  "  there  is  not  a  Citty,  a  Towne,  scarce  a 
Village  in  England,  where  some  of  this  poyson  is  not 
poured  forth."  The  book  is  further  interesting  to  us 
from  a  pretty  full  though  distorted  and  hostile  narrative 
of  the  antitrinitarian  movement  in  Poland  and  Transylvania. 
(2)  In  1656  appeared  Chewney's  "Anti-Socinianism,"  with 
an  appendix  entitled  "  Heresiarchy  :  or,  A  Cage  of  Unclean 
Birds,  Containing  the  Authors,  Propagators,  and  Chief  Dis- 
seminators of  this  Damnable  Socinian  Heresie,"  of  which 
the  title  shall  here  suffice.  (3)  In  1657  John  Bagshaw 
produced  in  Latin  "  Two  Anti-Socinian  Dissertations," 
showing  "  that  Socinians  ought  not  to  be  called  Christians," 
and  disputing  "  whether  the  good  works  of  unbelievers  are 
sinful."  These  three  are  mostly  a  harmless  rethreshing  of 
the  old  straw  of  controversy.  They  serve,  at  best,  to  put 
In  relief  the  noble  tolerance  of  the  great  Protector,  who  was 
observed  in  his  later  years  to  be  gentler  towards  all  men, 
even  to  those  of  the  Church  of  England. 

The  events  thus  briefly  traced  in  outline  make  the  back- 
ground on  which  we  have  now  to  follow  the  biography  of 
the  man  who  best  represents  the  movement  we  are  con- 
sidering. 

1  In  this  year,  as  told  l)elow  (p.  134),  Crom-well  sent  John  Biddlc  to  a  safe 
restraint  in  the  vScilly  Islands,  taking  him  out  of  the  city  prison,  where  he 
was  confined  by  order  of  the  Parliament. 


JOIIX  BIDDLE.  131 

John  Biddle  has  been  called  the  father,  the  earliest  wit- 
ness, and  the  martyr  of  English  Unitarianism.  He  was 
born  in  161 5,  in  a  small  town  near  Gloucester.  "His 
father,"  says  his  earliest  biographer,  "was  of  a  middle  sort 
of  yeoman,  and  also  dealt  in  woolen  clothes,  by  which 
means  he  maintained  his  family  honestly,  and  with  credit 
suitable  to  his  rank,  or  rather  above  it."  The  boy  was  so 
proficient  in  the  free  school  of  his  native  town  that  before 
he  was  ten  he  drew  the  notice  of  a  gentleman  of  the  neigh- 
borhood, who,  by  an  "  exhibition  "  (or  annual  gift)  of  ten 
pounds,  liberal  for  those  days,  helped  him  to  the  best  edu- 
cation to  be  had.  At  twenty-three  he  was  a  graduate  of 
Oxford,  and  at  twenty-six  master  of  arts  and  principal  of 
the  Crisp  Free  School  in  Gloucester.  While  in  the  uni- 
versity he  had  been  known  as  especially  grave  and  studi- 
ous, inclined  to  serious  things.  He  knew  by  heart,  it  was 
said,  the  whole  of  the  New  Testament,  Greek  as  well  as 
English,  down  to  and  including  the  first  four  chapters  of 
"  Revelation."  At  twenty-nine  (May  2,  1644)  he  had 
formulated  a  confession  of  faith  as  to  the  trinity^  its  main 
points  being  (i)  that  there  is  but  one  Divine  Essence,  prop- 
erly called  God;  (2)  that  God,  in  this  highest  sense,  exists 
but  in  one  Per.son ;  (3)  that  Christ  is  truly  God  "  by  being 
truly,  really,  and  properly  united  "  with  the  Father.  So 
far,  this  seems  to  have  been  purely  a  personal  confession, 
the  ground  and  motive  of  a  very  thoughtful  and  humble 
piety.  To  avoid  cavil,  he  altered  the  phrase  a  little  later, 
so  as  to  admit  "  three  in  that  one  Divine  Essence,  com- 
nionly  tcniicd  Persons." 

These  have  been  commonly  held  to  be  the  terms  of  a 
safe  and  sufficient  orthodoxy,  at  least  for  the  ordinar\-  and 
public  profession  of  belief.  But  they  led  to  private  dis- 
cussion among  near  friends,  and  to  further  study  on  his 
part,  in  the  course  of  which  he  drew  up  twelve  arguments 


132  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chai'.  vi. 

touching  the  proper  deity  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  These  were 
heedlessly  or  maliciously  reported  outside  the  circle  of  in- 
quirers, and  so  came  to  the  knowledge  of  the  magistrates. 
In  consequence,  the  obscure,  poor,  and  modest  provincial 
schoolmaster  was  summoned  before  the  awful  bar  of  the 
Presbyterian  Parliament.  On  the  2d  of  December,  1645, 
though  sick  with  fever,  he  was  cast  into  a  common  jail. 
A  friend  in  Gloucester  gave  bail  for  him,  with  six  months' 
liberty ;  and  here  he  was  visited  by  Archbishop  Usher, 
who  labored  kindly  to  convince  him  of  his  error.  Again 
he  was  arrested,  and  a  committee  was  deputed  to  examine 
him.  This  came  to  notliing,  except  that  a  copy  of  his 
argument  was  burned. 

Six  months  after  his  first  arrest,  he  addressed  a  pathetic 
appeal  to  Sir  Henry  Vane,  beseeching,  "  If  you  have  any 
bowels  towards  them  that  are  in  misery,  that  you  would 
either  procure  my  discharge,  or  at  least  make  report  to 
the  House  touching  my  denial  of  the  supposed  deity  of  the 
Holy  Spirit:  "  the  only  point  in  question,  since  he  had  re- 
fused to  be  drawn  into  a  discussion  of  the  nature  of  Christ. 
At  this  time,  indeed,  he  seems  to  have  been  ignorant  of 
any  argument  of  the  Socinians.  His  view  is  wholly  origi- 
nal and  his  own.  He  follows  his  appeal  with  a  long  state- 
ment of  reasons,  wishing,  no  doubt,  to  put  the  whole  case 
in  the  hands  of  so  generous  an  advocate  as-  Vane.  His 
own  words  avowing  his  belief  and  motive  are  his  best 
exposition.  "  There  is,  I  say,  one  principal  Spirit  among 
the  good  angels,  called  by  the  name  of  the  Advocate,  or 
the  Holy  Spirit,  or  the  Good  Spirit  of  God,  or  the  Spirit  by 
way  of  eminence.  This  opinion  of  mine  is  attested  by  the 
whole  tenor  of  the  Scripture,  which  perpetually  speaketh 
of  him  as  differing  from  God,  and  inferior  to  him  ;  but  is 
irrefragably  proved  by  these  places  of  Scripture  " — which 
are  cited  at  much  length,     "  Of  these  places  thus  recited," 


JOllX  BIDDLE.  133 

he  continues,  "  no  man,  though  never  so  subtle,  and 
though  he  turn  and  wind  his  wit  every  way,  shall  ever  be 
able  to  make  sense,  unless  he  take  the  Holy  Spirit  to  be 
w'hat  I  say."  And  he  further  adds,  "  For  my  own  particular, 
after  a  lont^',  impartial  inquir}-  of  the  truth  in  this  contro- 
versy, and  after  much  earnest  calling  upon  God  to  give 
unto  me  the  spirit  of  wisdom  and  revelation  in  the  knowl- 
edge of  him,  I  find  myself  obliged,  both  by  the  principles 
of  Scripture  and  of  reason,  to  embrace  the  opinion  I  now 
hold  forth  ;  and  as  much  as  in  me  lieth,  to  endeavor  that 
the  honor  of  Almighty  God  be  not  transferred  to  another, 
not  only  to  the  offense  of  God  himself,  but  also  of  his  Holy 
Spirit,  who  cannot  but  be  grieved  to  have  that  ignorantly 
ascribed  to  himself  which  is  proper  to  God  that  sends  him, 
and  which  he  nowhere  challengeth  to  himself  in  Scripture. 
What  shall  befall  me  in  the  pursuance  of  this  w^ork  I  refer 
to  the  disposal  of  the  all-wise  God,  whose  glory  is  dearer 
to  me  not  only  than  my  liberty,  but  than  my  life."  ^  "  God 
is  jealous  of  his  honor"  is  the  phrase  he  afterwards  used 
to  justify  his  owm  persistent  urging  of  the  argument.  The 
next  year^  in  "  a  confession  of  faith  touching  the  Holy 
Trinity  according  to  the  Scripture,"  he  would  not  den\-  the 
doctrine,  but  only  its  unscriptural  interpretation.  This 
confession  was  apparently  composed  in  prison.  It  was 
printed  in  1648,  and  rej^rinted,  as  we  Ikivc  it  now,  by  his 
friend  Thomas  I'^irmin,  in  1691. 

To  silence  this  one  poor  schoolmaster  is  said  to  have 
been  the  pressing  motive  for  urging  the  "  Draconian  ordi- 
nance "  against  blasphemy  and  heresy  already  described 
(p.  128).  But  bigotry  overshot  its  mark.  The  ordinance 
was  so  loaded  down  with  details  of  the  creed  it  would 
maintain,  and  the  heresies  it  meant  to  stifle,  that  practically 
it  lay  a  dead  letter.  Meanwhile  the  great  political  crisis 
1  From  vol.  i.  of  "  Unitarian  Tracts,"  pul)lislied  in  1691. 


134  ^-^^^    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  \i. 

was  more  urgent  still.  The  strong  hand  of  Cromwell  held 
intolerance  under,  and  for  three  years  more  John  Biddle 
lay  in  jail,  seemingly  forgotten.  He  was  released  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1 65  I,  nearly  perishing  from  neglect,  nearly  starved 
by  poverty.  He  earned  a  scanty  li\-ing  by  editing  a 
scholarly  edition  of  the  Septuagint;  and  when,  by  the 
Act  of  Oblivion,  of  February  10,  1652,  he  was  safe  from 
molestation,  he  gathered  about  him  the  nucleus  of  a  Uni- 
tarian society.      This,  however,  did  not  outlast  his  death. 

We  presently  find  him  busied  in  translating  and  circulat- 
ing the  writings  of  Unitarians  abroad,  including  a  biography 
of  Socinus.  But  his  chief  offense  appears  to  have  been  a 
"Twofold  Catechism,"  published  in  1654,  answering  ques- 
tions of  doctrine  in  the  very  words  of  Scripture.  A  reply 
soon  appeared,  under  the  title  "  The  Blasphemer  Slain." 
On  the  1 2th  of  December  Parliament  declared  the  "Two- 
fold Catechism  "  heretical  and  blasphemous,  ordering  all 
copies  of  it  to  be  burned ;  and  the  next  day  its  author  was 
committed  to  close  confinement  in  the  "  Gate-house."  Par- 
liament would  have  proceeded  further  with  him,  but  on 
the  22d  of  January  it  was  suddenly  dissolved  by  Cromwell. 
Biddle  was  released,  but  was  again  arrested  in  sequence 
of  a  new  discussion.  To  keep  the  peace  between  the  dis- 
putants as  well  as  might  be,  he  was  now  sent  to  an  honor- 
able and  restful  retirement  in  the  Scilly  Islands  by  Crom- 
well, who  made  a  modest  allowance  for  his  support. 

Returning  to  London  on  his  release,  in  the  spring  of 
1658,  after  two  and  a  half  years  of  quiet  activity — "  enjoy- 
ing much  Divine  comfort  from  the  heavenly  contemplations 
which  his  retirement  gave  him  opportunity  for" — he  took 
up  again  his  pastoral  charge,  only  retreating  for  a  time  into 
the  country  after  Cromwell's  death,  in  September  of  that 
year.  When  "  the  king  came  to  his  own  again,"  in  1660, 
he   prudently    confined    himself   to    private    ministrations. 


JOHN  BIDDLE ;    THOMAS  FIRM IX.  I  35 

l)ut  he  did  not  so  escape  the  cruelty  of  his  persecutors. 
"For  on  the  ist  of  June,  1662,  he  was  haled  out  of  his 
lodgings,  where  he  was  convened 'with  some  few  of  his 
friends  for  Di\ine  worship,  and  carried  before  Sir  Richard 
Brown,  who  forthwith  committed  them  all  to  the  public 
prison,  John  Biddle  to  the  dungeon,  where  he  lay  for  five 
hours,  and  was  denied  the  benefit  of  the  law  which  admits 
offenders  of  that  sort  to  bail  for  their  appearance."  He 
was  condemned  to  a  fine  of  one  hundred  pounds,  with 
a  threat  of  seven  years'  imprisonment.  But  within  five 
weeks,  "  by  reason  of  the  noisomeness  of  the  place  and  the 
pent  air,"  he  fell  into  a  deadly  sickness.  He  was  barely 
able  to  be  removed  for  two  days  of  repose  among  friends, 
when  he  died,  on  the  22d  of  September,  at  the  age  of  forty- 
seven.  He  had  often  said  "  that  if  he  should  be  once  more 
cast  into  prison,  he  should  never  be  restored  to  liberty  ; 
and,  moreover,  that  the  icork  ivas  done." 

The  little  church  gathered  by  John  Biddle  did  not  sur- 
vive him,  though  the  doctrine  he  taught  was  silently 
adopted  in  many  dissenting  congregations  at  a  later  day. 
It  was  embraced,  with  eager  assent,  among  others  by  a 
young  disciple,  Thomas  Mrmin  (1632—97),  of  whose  most 
honorable  record  as  a  Unitarian  layman  a  word  should 
be  said  in  this  place.  He  had  already  been  turned  from 
his  Calvinistic  belief  by  an  Arminian  preacher,  John  Good- 
win ;  and  his  name  appears  among  the  group  that  through 
Biddle's  long  season  of  persecution  had  stood  true  to  him. 
Although  in  later  years  he  commonly  worshiped  in  the 
Church  of  England,  he  held  his  liberal  faith  through  his 
prosperous,  beneficent,  and  honored  life.  He  was  a  Lon- 
don merchant,  a  man  of  modest  fortune  (never  exceeding 
some  forty  thousand  dollars),  which  he  drew  upon  for 
charitable  uses  with  a  wealth  of  generosity  amazing  and 
unexampled   in   those   profligate   days.      The   amount   of 


136  THE    UXITARIANS.  \C\\.\v.  \\. 

misery  he  relieved  in  the  dreadful  times  of  the  plague 
and  the  great  fire  of  1666  was  beyond  computation.  His 
charity,  too,  was  wise  as  it  was  liberal  and  open-handed, — 
a  charity  that  knew  no  difference  of  nation  or  sect,  while 
it  created  and  kept  up  lines  of  self-respecting  industry. 
His  heresy,  well  known  and  openly  avowed,  did  not  de- 
prive him  of  the  amplest  reward  of  gratitude  from  all 
parties  in  his  lifetime,  and  generous  praise  is  recorded  of 
him  in  a  monument  upon  the  wall  of  the  parish  church  he 
attended.  To  him  we  probably  owe  the  survival  of  the 
very  name  and  memory  of  John  Biddle ;  certainly,  of  his 
biography  and  his  full  profession  of  belief,  for  at  his  own 
cost  he  gathered  and  published,  in  1691,  the  papers  which 
make  up  the  first  of  six  volumes  of  the  "  Unitarian  Tracts."  ^ 
The  series  itself  gives  the  share  taken  by  the  defenders  of 
that  belief  in  the  vigorous  discussion  that  went  on  during 
the  last  years  of  the  century.  This  remarkable  episode  in 
the  history  of  religious  thought  in  England  remains  now 
to  be  described. 

If  the  Presbyterian  party,  which  had  brought  to  pass  the 
restoration  of  the  king,  rejoiced  in  the  condemnation  of  the 
man  they  had  been  eager  to  destroy,  they  were  speedily 
brought  to  a  better  mind.  Just  within  a  month  before 
John  Biddle's  death,  two  thousand  of  their  ministers  made 
noble  atonement  for  whatever  fault  that  party  had  been 
guilty  of,  by  voluntarily  resigning  their  livings  in  the 
Church  of  England  on  the  new  "  St.  Bartholomew's  Day  " 
(August  24, 1662),  expelled  by  the  Act  of  Uniformity  lately 
passed.  Charles's  pledge  had  been  "  that  no  man  shall 
be  disquieted  or  called  in  question  for  differences  of  opin- 
ion on  matters  of  religion,  which  do  not  disturb  the  peace 
of  the  kingdom."     Under  this  heavy  blow,  the  Puritan  theo- 

1  This  rare  and  indispensable  record  exists,  complete,  in  the  Harvard 
University  library. 


U  II. I.I  AM   FKXX.  137 

logians — Nonconformists  now,  and  presently  to  be  known 
as  Dissenters — lost  their  stomach  for  speculative  debate, 
which  went  henceforth  into  other  hands. 

An  occasion  for  renewing  the  debate  was  found  in  1688. 
A  Presbyterian  preacher,  Thomas  Vincent,  had  sharply 
rebuked  some  members  of  his  congregation  who  had  gone 
for  curiosity  to  hear  the  doctrine  declared  at  a  Quaker 
meeting.  Quakerism  had  come  up  twenty-one  years  be- 
fore, in  1647,  through  the  testimony  of  George  Fox,  in  a 
time  when  there  was  great  laxity  in  belief  and  disorder  of 
morals,  after  the  crushing  defeat  of  monarchy  in  the  field ; 
and  had  just  gained,  in  1667,  its  most  distinguished  ad- 
vocate in  Robert  Barclay.  Among  others,  it  was  early 
embraced  by  that  warm-liearted,  brilliant,  opinionated 
youth,  William  Penn,  who  was  at  this  time  closely  intimate 
with  one  of  its  most  noted  preachers,  George  Whitehead. 
Resenting  the  contumely  of  Vincent,  who  charged  its  doc- 
trine of  the  Inner  Light  as  "  damnable,"  these  two  now 
demanded  a  hearing,  which  was  grudgingly  allowed  them 
in  the  Presbyterian  chapel,  already  packed  with  unfriendly 
auditors.  The  debate  was  at  once  turned  to  a  cliallenge 
of  their  opinion  on  the  trinity ;  and,  whatever  they  might 
wish  to  say,  they  soon  found  it  "  impossible  to  obtain  a 
hearing." 

This  incident  led  Penn,  now  at  the  age  of  twenty-four, 
to  prepare  and  publish  a  little  pamphlet,  with  the  title 
"The  Sandy  F'oundation  Shaken."  It  is  an  argument  of 
appeal  or  protest,  rather  than  of  labored  criticism  ;  a  plain, 
brave,  frank  word,  suited  to  open  a  discussion,  not  a  trea- 
tise or  an  essay,  such  as  the  controversial  fashion  of  the 
time  might  seem  to  demand.  Even  at  our  later  day  we 
are  struck  b\-  the  vigor  an(i  decision  of  the  protest.  The 
scholastic  doctrine  of  the  trinity  ;  the  assertion  that  "  .satis- 
faction "  can  be  made  for  the  sin  of  one  by  the  suffering 


138  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  vi. 

of  another,  or  that  one  who  is  himself  guilty  can  be  "  jus- 
tified "  by  another's  righteousness, — these  cardinal  points 
of  Galvin's  creed  are  attacked,  not  by  arguments  carefully 
drawn  from  Scripture,  but  by  appeal  to  the  natural  reason 
and  conscience  of  men.  We  seem,  in  this  appeal,  to  hear 
the  very  voice  of  our  own  day,  rather  than  those  echoes  of 
the  past  we  have  been  so  long  used  to.  Channing,  in  his 
most  convincing  argument,  did  not  go  an  inch  beyond  it. 

Meanwhile  there  went  on  a  quiet  spread  of  Unitarian 
opinion  in  England,  embracing  the  illustrious  names  of 
John  Milton  and  Algernon  Sidney.  Milton's  argument, 
which  is  that  commonly  called  Arian,  is  contained  in  a 
Latin  treatise  on  "  Christian  Doctrine,"  which  lay  in 
manuscript  till  1823,  when  it  was  brought  to  light  and 
soon  after  published,  with  a  translation,  making  the  text  of 
Macaulay's  celebrated  essay.  Sidney's  is  included  among 
those  speculations,  political  and  philosophic,  which  brought 
him  to  the  block  in  1683.  There  was,  too,  a  steady  inflow 
of  antitrinitarian  writings  from  the  Continent,  mostly  from 
Polish  sources,  which  called  out,  among  other  protests,  in 
1680,  a  dissertation  on  Socinus  and  Socinianism  by  George 
Ashwell,  who  sums  up  his  judgment  of  the  man  in  the 
generous  terms  before  quoted.^ 

A  more  important  waymark  of  the  course  the  weary 
debate  now  took  is  found  in  a  Latin  essay,  "A  Defense  of 
the  Nicene  Faith,"  by  the  Rev.  George  Bull,  published  in 
1685.  This  essay  is  partly  a  concession  to  the  stress  of 
argument  on  purely  Scripture  grounds,  partly  an  attempt 
to  guide  the  discussion  into  a  diflferent  channel.  The 
Christian  writers  before  Athanasius  are  cited  in  much 
detail,  with  a  view  to  show  that  the  real  mind  of  the  early 
church,  while  ascribing  every  Divine  perfection  to  the  Son 
and  Spirit,  made  these  "  subordinate  "  in  the  one  point, 

1  At  the  end  of  Cliapter  TIT.  (p.  72). 


TOLERATION  ACT;   BURY;    WALLIS.  1 39 

that  the  Father  alone  is  self-subsistent,  and  that  from  him 
alone  those  perfections  are  granted  and  derived.  This 
view  was  attacked  about  thirty  years  later,  on  Arian 
grounds,  in  a  pamphlet  by  Daniel  Whitby.^ 

But  the  way  was  really  opened  to  the  controversy  now 
about  to  follow,  by  the  Toleration  Act  of  1689,  passed 
after  the  accession  of  William  and  Mary.  This  Act  ex- 
cluded both  papists  and  deniers  of  the  trinity  from  the 
indulgence  granted  to  Dissent.  Still,  the  granting  of  it, 
as  Locke  foresaw,  was  likely  to  bring  about  a  larger  liberty. 
In  this  very  year  the  Houses  of  Convocation,  then  sitting, 
had  their  attention  called  to  certain  brief  "  Notes  "  on  the 
Athanasian  Creed,  with  other  writings  of  heretical  tendency. 
In  1690  the  debate  was  fairly  opened  by  Dr.  Arthur  Bury, 
rector  of  Lincoln  College,  in  a  tract  entitled  "The  Naked 
Gospel."  This  tract  charges  that  the  church  doctrine  of 
the  trinity,  after  centurres  of  debate,  was  first  made  obli- 
gatory by  an  edict  of  Theodosius,  later  than  380.  Its 
author  would  forestall  controversy  on  the  subject  by  lim- 
iting debate  to  the  one  question.  What  was  the  doctrine 
actually  taught  by  Christ  and  the  apostles?  The  discus- 
sion that  now  follows  lay  wholly  within  the  limits  of  the 
Church  of  England,  and  was  conducted  by  eminent  divines 
belonging  to  tiiat  church.  It  gives  us  three  differing 
points  of  view. 

The  first  is  shown  in  an  essay  entitled  "  Letters  on  the 
Trinity,"  by  Dr.  John  Wallis,  an  elderly  Oxford  professor 
of  mathematics.  The  form  of  doctrine,  he  urges,  is  es- 
sential by  reason  of  the  dignity  and  steadiness  it  gives  to 
the  church  system  of  faith.  The  only  difficulty  is  in  its 
philosophic  interpretation.  But  why  perplex  ourselves 
with  that?  Let  us  only,  for  the  sake  of  peace,  accept  the 
dictum  of  the  church  that  there  are  "  three  Somewhats  "  in 

1   Printed  in  S]iarks's  "  Tracts,"  vol.  i. 


140  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap,  vi 

the  Di\"ine  nature,  which  we  may  explain  as  we  will,  but 
certainly  cannot  understand.  "  These  three  Somewhats 
we  commonly  call  Persons ;  but  the  true  notion  and  true 
name  of  that  distinction  is  unknown  to  us."  God,  he 
says,  "  beareth  to  his  creatures  these  three  relations,  modes, 
or  respects :  that  he  is  their  Creator,  their  Redeemer,  their 
Sanctifier.  That  is  what  we  mean,  and  all  that  zue  mean, 
when  we  say  God  is  in  three  Persons."  Take  the  simplest 
of  mathematical  illustrations  :  has  not  a  cube  three  "  some- 
whats," which  we  call  its  three  dimensions — length,  breadth, 
and  height?  Of  these  no  one  can  be  confounded  with 
either  of  the  others,  and  they  are  all  equal ;  yet  they  are 
not  three  cubes,  but  one.  May  we  not  interpret  our  doctri- 
nal formula  in  some  such  way  as  this? 

The  challenge  is  next  taken  up  by  Dr.  William  Sherlock, 
dean  of  St.  Paul's,  and  father  of  the  more  celebrated 
preacher,  in  a  "  Vindication  of  the  Holy  and  Ever-Blessed 
Trinity."  He  goes  into  the  discussion  too  hastily,  with  a 
tone  needlessly  domineering  and  with  some  carelessness 
of  phrase,  thinking  to  give  weight  to  his  argument  by  a 
terminology  which  he  has  not  clearly  thought  out  to  him- 
self beforehand.  What  constitutes  a  Person,  he  says,  is 
self-consciousness.  We  accept  the  Trinity  as  consisting  of 
three  Persons :  now  each  of  these  is  distinct  in  his  own 
self-consciousness,  "  just  as  three  finite  and  created  minds 
are;  "  while  "  they  are  united  into  one  by  a  mutual  con- 
sciousness, which  no  created  spirits  have."  This  assertion, 
repeated  again  and  again,  with  some  variety  and  expansion 
of  phrase, — as  if  he  would  drown  objection  by  the  ampli- 
tude of  tone  in  which  it  is  spoken, — makes  the  substance 
of  his  argument. 

The  "  Vindication  "  called  out  that  somewhat  virulent 
wit  of  the  Establishment,  Dr.  Robert  South.  He  attacks 
it,   in    a   style   gratuitously  offensive  if  not  insulting,   by 


WILLIAM   SHERLOCK;    ROBERT  SOUTH.  141 

"Animadversions  upon  Dr.  Sherloci<'s  Book"  (1693),  ^"^1 
again  in  "  Tritheism  Charged  upon  Dr.  Sherlock's  New 
Notion  of  the  Trinity"  (1695).  We  may  pass  over  the 
cavils  at  his  opponent's  lordly  tone  and  at  the  phrases  al- 
ready quoted,  and  come  to  the  definition  which  he  would 
put  in  their  place :  "  The  three  Persons  of  the  blessed 
Trinity  are  one  and  the  same  undivided  Essence,  Nature, 
or  Godhead,  diversified  only  by  three  different  modes  of 
subsistence,  which  are  sometimes  called  properties  and 
sometimes  relations  ;  "  and  these  again,  as  found  in  spirit- 
ual natures,  he  compares  to  "  postures  "  in  material  forms. 
"  We  do  hold  and  affirm,"  he  says,  "  that  the  Father  com- 
municates his  nature,  under  a  different  mode  of  subsisting 
.from  what  it  has  in  himself,  to  another;  and  that  such  a 
communication  of  it,  in  such  a  peculiar  way,  is  called  his 
begetting  of  a  son  "  (p.  292). 

This  substitution  of  feebler  phrases  for  the  sublime 
though  perhaps  vague  symbolism  under  which  the  church 
has  veiled  the  eternal  mystery  of  the  Godhead,  exposed 
Dr.  South  to  as  merciless  retort,  as  keenly  pressed,  as  that 
he  had  applied  to  Sherlock.  As  it  looked  to  unfriendly 
eyes,  the  situation  was  this :  three  men,  all  eminent  theo- 
logians, all  speaking  with  authority,  all  accepting  the  same 
creed,  all  members  of  the  same  Establishment,  gave  each 
an  interpretation  to  the  same  words  which  both  the  others 
held  to  be  heretical  and  misleading;  constructively,  even 
blasphemous.  Thus  their  Unitarian  critics  were  well  con- 
tent to  leave  them  to  confute  one  another.  One  view, 
they  said,  was  clearly  tritheistic,  one  was  Sabellian,  while 
the  third  they  could  themselves  well  assent  to.'  The  three 
interpretations  continued,  however,  to  abide  together,  as 
peaceably  as  they  might,  in  the  shelter  of  the  Establish- 
ment.    This  was  now,  in  a  time  of  \iolent  political  changes, 

1  See  "  Unitarian  Tracts,"  vols.  ii.  and  iii. 


142  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  VI. 

taking  on  a  secular  or  "  Erastian "  tone,  never  quite 
equaled  before  or  since.  In  a  splenetic  attack  on  the 
Whigs  of  his  own  day,  Charles  Davenant  says  (1701),  "A 
modest  Christian  durst  hardly  put  in  a  word  for  the  Second 
Person  of  the  Trinity  without  exposing  himself  to  laughter." 
And  he  adds,  "  Are  not  many  of  us  able  to  point  to  sev- 
eral persons  whom  nothing  has  recommended  to  places  of 
the  highest  trust,  and  often  to  rich  benefices  and  dignities, 
but  the  open  enmity  which  they  have,  almost  from  their 
cradles,  to  the  di\inity  of  Christ?"'  A  well-known  ex- 
ample of  the  "  Arian  "  clergy  of  that  day  is  Dr.  Samuel 
Clarke,  who  wrote,  in  1724:  "The  Scripture,  when  it 
mentions  the  One  God,  or  t/ie  Only  God,  always  means  the 
Supreme  Person  of  the  Father;"  and  again,  "  The  Son,  or 
Second  Person,  is  not  self-existent,  but  derives  his  being 
or  essence,  and  all  his  attributes,  from  the  Father,  as  from 
the  Supreme  Cause  "  (pp.  224,  270).  No  Unitarian  state- 
ment had  hitherto  said  more  than  this. 

In  1695  appeared  Locke's  "Reasonableness  of  Christian- 
ity," maintaining  that  the  one  "  essential  "  of  Christian  be- 
lief is  the  acceptance  of  Jesus  as  the  Messiah.  This  was  at 
once  assailed  by  John  Edwards,  son  of  the  author  of  "  Gan- 
graena,"  with  almost  all  his  father's  virulence,  charging  that 
Locke  was  a  Socinian  but  afraid  to  own  it.  Locke  might 
well  reply,  as  he  did,  that  he  had  not  read  a  single  Socinian 
book.  But  all  the  charge  implied  was  in  the  air.  What- 
ever was  most  free  in  the  heritage  of  thought,  Locke  had 
entered  into  as  deeply  as  any  man.  The  real  importance 
of  his  "  Reasonableness,"  in  the  history  of  opinion,  is  that 
it  was  the  last  word,  spoken  judicially,  in  a  long  debate 
which   could  now  only  repeat  itself;    and  that  it  was  the 

1  Works  (ed.  of  1778),  vol.  iii.,  p.  322.  I  have  a  MS.  list  (prepared  by 
the  late  Pishey  Thompson,  Esq.,  of  Washington,  D.  C. )  of  th'rty-three  clergy- 
men of  the  Church  of  England,  including  an  archbishop  and  four  bishops,  of 
known  Unitarian  opinions. 


I.OCA-E'S  •'  A'/':.lSOA.I  BL£A'£SS  ";    THOMAS   KMLYX.     I  43 

immediate  prelude  to  the  Deistical  Controversy,  which  en- 
i4a[;ed  the  more  radical  thinkers  of  England  for  the  next 
fifty  years.' 

The  name  of  one  other  Unitarian  witness  interests  us, 
from  the  influence  it  had  in  the  discussion  that  sprang 
uj)  a  little  later  in  America.  Thomas  Emlyn  (i 663-1  741) 
— a  man  of  serious,  sweet,  and  candid  temper,  a  devoted 
pastor,  especially  tender  and  comforting  in  prayer — began 
his  career  among  the  Nonconformists,  preaching  at  the 
early  age  of  nineteen,  in  London.  He  was  an  eye-witness, 
the  next  year,  of  the  execution  of  Lord  William  Russell, 
which  no  doubt  helped  confirm  him  in  the  faith  of  free- 
dom. At  twenty-one  he  went  to  Belfast,  in  the  household 
of  a  family  of  rank.  In  the  revolutionary  year,  1688,  we 
(ind  him  preaching  "  with  pistols  in  his  pocket  "  in  the  dis- 
turbed district  of  the  north  of  Ireland.  In  discussion  with 
a  friend  on  Sherlock's  "  Vindication,"  he  held  to  the  Arian 
view  against  the  Socinian.  But  he  never  carried  the  argu- 
ment into  the  pulpit,  where  his  teaching  was  always  grave, 
tender,  and  practical.  After  a  ten  years'  ministry  in  Dub- 
lin, while  in  his  fresh  grief  at  the  loss  of  his  admirable 
wife,  he  was  called  to  account  for  his  private  opinions. 
His  aged  colleague  was  put  on  the  stand  to  testify  of  his 
intimate  conversations.  Narrow  Nonconformists  appealed 
to  church  and  state  against  him,  and  he  was  punished  by 
a  year's  imprisonment,  with  a  fine  of  a  thousand  pounds. 
The  witness  of  his  later  life  in  l'2ngland  is  found  in  a  vol- 
ume of  sermons  and  one  of  essays  in  defense  of  his  opinions, 
introduced  by  a  biography  warm  from  a  friendly  hand. 

One  pitiful  tragedy  completes  the  tale  of  the  period 
we  have  been  reviewing.  In  January,  1697,  one  Thomas 
Aikenhead,  a  boy  of  eighteen,  a  student  in  the  University 
of  Edinburgh,  "  not  vicious,  and  extremely  studious,"  was 

1  See  the  author's  "  Christian  History,"  vol.  iii.,  pp.  176-181. 


144  THE    UXITARIAXS.  [Chap.  vi. 

executed  for  blasphemy.  The  Scottish  capital,  apparently, 
had  not  caught  the  cosmopolitan  temper  which  would  have 
made  such  an  act  impossible  in  London.  Within  two 
years,  an  old  statute  inflicting  the  penalty  of  death  for 
blasphemy  had — to  the  horror  of  such  minds  as  Locke's — 
been  furbished  up  afresh.  The  boy  Aikenhead  was  con- 
victed, by  testimony  of  his  college-mates,  of  such  offenses 
as  saying,  in  the  warmth  of  debate,  that  to  him  the  phrase 
"  god-man "  was  as  meaningless  as  if  one  should  say 
"  goat-stag,"  or  "  square-round,"  with  other  expressions 
which  were  construed  to  signify  contempt  of  the  Bible  or 
of  the  Divine  name.  He  was  tried,  without  counsel  to 
cross-examine  the  witnesses  (college  boys  like  himself)  or 
explain  to  them  what  their  testimony  might  imply  as  to 
the  fate  before  him.  The  most  important  part  of  the  evi- 
dence he  explicitly  denied.  Three  years  later,  or  a  little 
more,  the  Act  of  Union  between  England  and  Scotland 
would  probably  have  made  this  shocking  act  impossible. 

Heresy  could  no  longer  be  punished  by  death  in  Eng- 
land. But,  to  propitiate  such  bigotry  as  still  suvived,  an 
act  was  passed,  in  1698,  "for  the  more  effectual  suppress- 
ing of  blasphemy  and  profaneness."  It  contained  the 
following  terms,  which  are  an  essential  sequel  to  the  review 
that  has  now  been  taken :  namely,  that  "  if  any  person 
having  been  educated  in,  or  at  any  time  having  made  pro- 
fession of,  the  Christian  religion,  within  this  realm,  shall 
by  writing,  printing,  teaching,  or  advised  speaking,  deny 
any  one  of  the  Persons  of  the  Holy  Trinity  to  be  God  ;  or 
shall  assert  or  maintain  that  there  are  more  Gods  than  one, 
or  shall  deny  the  Christian  religion  to  be  true,  or  the  holy 
Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  to  be  of  Divine 
authority,  and  shall  be  thereof  lawfully  convicted  by  the 
oath  of  two  or  more  credible  witnesses, — such  person  shall 
for  the  first  offense  be  adjudged  incapable  and  disabled  in 


LAST  ACTS   OF  IXTOLERANCE.  1 45 

law  to  have  and  enjoy  any  office  or  employment,  civil  or 
military  "  :  the  penalty  for  repeating  the  offense  being 
total  loss  of  all  civil  rights — such  as  right  to  inherit  or  de- 
fense at  law — with  three  years'  imprisonment.  This  su- 
premely wicked  statute — wicked  because  passed  by  men 
without  conscience  or  conviction  on  the  subject,  and  made 
intentionally  a  dead  letter  except  when  it  might  serve  for 
malicious  prosecution — was  not  repealed  till  181 3.  Uni- 
tarians in  England  were  not  reinvested  with  their  full  civil 
rights  until  the  passage  of  the  "  Dissenters'  Chapels  Act" 
in  1844.^ 

1  See  below,  p.  153. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

UNITARIAN    DISSENT   IN    ENGLAND. 

The  discussion  which  filled  so  large  a  space  at  the  close 
of  the  seventeenth  century  gave  to  the  Unitarian  doctrine, 
more  or  less  disguised,  a  certain  recognized  standing  both 
in  the  Established  Church  and  among  the  more  educated 
of  the  Nonconformists.  Two  names,  in  particular,  show 
this  result.  Samuel  Clarke  (1675-1729),  eminent  alike 
as  a  scholar,  a  mathematician,  and  a  churchman,  the  best 
known  defender  at  that  day  of  a  philosophical  theism,  held  a 
position  frankly  Arian  ;  and  his  revised  liturgy  was  adopted, 
almost  without  change,  in  the  earlier  Unitarian  congrega- 
tions. Nathaniel  Lardner  (1684- 1768),  the  most  learned 
theologian  among  the  Presbyterians,  and  far  the  most  em- 
inent defender  of  historical  Christianity  against  the  Deists, 
confessed  a  Unitarianism  more  and  more  pronounced,  dur- 
ing a  career  distinguished  as  much  for  caj^idor  and  thought 
as  for  laborious  erudition.  Thus,  for  more  than  half  a 
century,  there  was  a  complete  lull  in  a  dispute  that  a  little 
while  before  had  looked  so  implacable  and  vindictive. 

To  explain  this  change,  we  note  that  the  Deistical 
controversy — following  from  the  argument  of  Locke's 
"  Reasonableness,"  and  occupying  almost  exactly  the  first 
half  of  the  eighteenth  century  (1696-1748) — had  opened 
up  a  new  issue,  that  of  Rationalism  pure  and  .simple.  In 
that  debate  the  Unitarians  ranked  themselves,  with  strong 
conviction,  among  the  defenders  of  a  miraculous  revelation. 
For  considerably  more  than  a  hundred  years  not  one  of 
any  note  among   them  wavered   in   this  position.     And, 

146 


rKESBYTKKIAN,    INDEPENDENT,    BAPTIST.  147 

while  the  stress  of  that  controversy  lasted,  questions  of 
doctrinal  interpretation  were  dwarfed,  if  not  forgotten. 

The  body  of  English  Dissenters  had  been  drawn  to- 
gether by  the  common  and  deep  wrong  they  suffered 
under,  through  the  series  of  execrable  acts  passed  by  the 
government  of  the  Restoration.'  From  time  to  time  at- 
tempts were  made  to  give  them  unity  and  strength  under 
some  form  of  confession  that  might  embrace  them  all. 
But  the  pressure  was  lightened  by  the  Act  of  Tolera- 
tion (1689);  and  the  Dissenting  body,  which  had  come 
together  from  widely  different  sources,  fell  again  into  its 
natural  groups,  The  Prcsbyterian.s — as  nobly  shown  in 
the  case  of  Ba.xter — had  inherited  something  of  the  mental 
breadth,  the  pliancy  of  organization,  and  the  comparative 
easiness  as  to  doctrine,  that  belong  to  a  great  secular  Estab- 
lishment, like  that  from  which  they  had  withdrawn  against 
their  will.  The  Independents,  who  had  \-oluntarily  for- 
saken the  National  Church  for  conviction's  sake,  held  more 
rigidly  to  their  points  of  faith,  and  became  forerunners  of 
the  stricter  E\'angelical  bodies  of  a  later  day.  Individuals 
among  them,  however,  held  that  faith  loosely,  as  Watts 
(1674— I  748),  who  is  understood  to  have  died  a  Unitarian  ;  2 
and  Doddridge  (1702-51),  whose  vague  "in-dwelling 
scheme "  was  hardly  less  heretical.  The  Baptists  had 
never  been  bound  by  a  formal  creed,  and  their  theology, 
sharply  individualized,  had  proved  the  germ  or  the  ally 
of  various  heresies  ;  but  they  were  more  closely  held  by 
their  strict  requirement  of  adult  baptism,  which  defined 
them  sharply  as  a  sect,  tending  also  to  divide  into  sub- 

1  The  .Act  of  Uniformity,  1662:  tlie  Conventicle  Act,  1664;  tlie  Five-Mile 
Act,  1665;  the  Test  and  Corporation  Acts,  1673  (abolished,  1828).  Under 
the  operation  of  these  it  is  stated  that,  from  first  to  last,  nearly  eight 
thousand  persons  perished  in  various  prisons. 

-  "  I  have  somctinies  carried  reason,"  Jic  says,  "  even  to  the  camp  of 
Socinus  ;  but  then  Saint  Jolin  gives  my  soul  a  twitch." 


148  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap,  vii, 

sects — some  Sabbatarian,  some  of  a  more  free  communion. 
These  several  tendencies  reappear  in  the  later  history  of 
Unitarian  Dissent.  While  not  one  of  its  congregations 
bears  the  title  "  Independent,"  no  less  than  twenty- five 
(eight  in  England  and  seventeen  in  Ireland)  are  still  known 
as  "  Presbyterian,"  and  several  were  originally  Baptist — 
though  only  two  of  them  (one  each  in  England  and  in 
Wales)  have  kept  that  name  in  their  recorded  title.  So 
many  of  them  are,  in  fact,  of  Presbyterian  descent,  that  that 
name  has  been  seriously  proposed,  in  our  day,  for  adoption 
by  the  whole  body  of  Liberal  congregations,  so  as  to  avoid 
the  narrow  polemic  associations  of  the  title  "  Unitarian." 

Under  the  conditions  of  toleration  granted  them,  Eng- 
lish Dissenters  were  bound  by  the  harsh  and  unjust  restric- 
tion that  they  must  assent  to  all  the  properly  doctrinal  arti 
cles  of  the  Church  of  England, — that  is,  to  thirty-five  out 
of  the  thirty-nine, — having  dispensation  only  from  the  four 
which  define  the  claims  of  church  authority.  The  restric- 
tion was  as  futile  as  it  was  unjust.  Latitude  of  interpreta- 
tion was  not  likely  to  be  more  fettered  outside  the  church 
walls  than  within  them.  We  may,  it  is  true,  assume  that 
the  subscription  of  Dissenters  was  oftener  honestly  made 
than  that  of  Churchmen.  But  it  was  felt  to  be  a  badge  of 
subjection,  and  it  galled.  It  was,  besides,  not  only  a  check 
on  honest  liberty  of  thinking,  but  a  standing  invitation  to 
casuistry  and  subterfuge.  This  point  of  conscience  pricked 
more  and  more  sharply  as  the  stress  of  the  Deistical  con- 
troversy abated.  And  we  find,  accordingly,  just  after  the 
middle  of  the  century,  a  series  of  efforts  or  appeals  to  Par- 
liament— long  made  in  vain,  though  urged  by  a  most  in- 
telligent and  influential  portion  of  the  Anglican  clergy — 
to  have  the  terms  of  subscription  lightened.^ 

1  A  bill  of  relief  passed  the  Commons  in  1772,  but  was  dcfcntcd  liy  the 
Lords.  Since  1779,  only  "  belief  in  Christianity  "  is  required  of  the  dissent- 
ing clergy. 


TIIEOPHILVS  LIXDSEY.  1 49 

It  is  just  here  that  Unitarian  Dissent  in  England  properly 
begins.  Its  history  will  be  best  told  in  a  short  series  of 
representati\e  lives. 

The  first  Unitarian  chapel,  distinctly  known  as  such,  was 
founded  in  Essex  Street,  London,  by  TheoijJiilus  Lindsey, 
in  1774.  Lindsey  (i  723-1808)  was  a  clergyman  of  the 
Church  of  England,  w^ho  had  on  grounds  of  conscience 
given  up  his  li\-ing  at  Catterick,  in  Yorkshire,  five  years 
before.  He  was  a  man  of  peculiarly  winning  and  gracious 
personality ;  of  gentle  temper,  that  might  easily  have  been 
spoiled  by  the  indulgence  and  flattery  surrounding  him 
in  youth ;  a  refined  scholar  and  devoted  parish  minister, 
generously  and  on  principle  spending  his  income  in  chari- 
ties among  the  distressed ;  holding,  against  the  somber 
view  of  Butler,  Paley's  cheerful  belief  in  the  gladness  of 
all  sentient  things,  and  against  the  harsh  theology  of  his 
time  the  kindlier  hope  of  a  restoration  of  all  souls  in  the 
life  to  come.  As  early  as  1763,  at  his  transfer  to  the 
highly  privileged  position  in  Catterick,  he  had  felt  scruples 
at  renewing  subscription  to  certain  of  the  articles ;  but 
had  persuaded  himself  that  his  own  explanation  of  them 
(a  Sabellianism  like  that  of  Wallis)  might  be  fairly  enough 
covered  by  the  required  formula.  "  My  great  diflficulty," 
he  says,  "  was  on  the  point  of  worship  [paid  to  Christ]  ;  in 
comparison  with  this,  subscription  to  the  articles,  however 
momentous  in  itself,  gave  me  then  but  little  concern."  ' 

While  here,  however,  he  came  under  two  strong  per- 
sonal influences  which  did  much  to  decide  his  course.  One 
was  from  intimate  association  with  an  elderly  clergyman 
(Archdeacon  Blackburne,  his  wife's  stepfather),  whose 
beliefs  and  scruples  were  very  like  his  own,  who  put  the 
case  in  this  way :  "  I  confess  that,  with  my  present  views, 
I  should  not  be  free  to  sign  the  articles  again.      But  I  did 

1  "Apology,"  p.  20. 


150  THE    UNITARIANS.  \Q.\\\v.  vii. 

sign  them  once  in  good  faith ;  and,  in  signing  them,  I 
pledged  my  Hfe  to  a  work  the  most  sacred  and  important 
that  I  could  conceive.  Am  I  free  to  abandon  that  work? 
I  see  how  it  will  end  with  you.  With  your  convictions 
it  is  only  a  question  of  time  when  you  will  leave  the 
church.  But  for  me  it  is  too  late  to  make  the  change. 
On  the  whole,  my  conscience  keeps  me  where  I  am."  ^ 

The  other  influence  was  from  a  close  friendship  formed 
during  this  time  with  Joseph  Priestley,  then  a  Dissenting 
minister  at  Leeds.  Priestley's  restless,  versatile,  and  self- 
confident  intelligence  would  of  itself  encourage  all  liberty 
of  thinking.  But  he  had  had  his  own  hard  experience  of 
ill-paid  work  and  narrow  circumstances.  He  was  scrupu- 
lous not  to  urge  his  friend's  conscience  beyond  its  nat- 
ural pace.  "  Stay  where  you  are,"  was  the  burden  of  his 
advice ;  "  your  work  is  a  good  work,  and  when  the  time 
comes  that  you  must  change  it,  the  way  will  be  clear  to 
you." 

Advice  so  given,  in  the  guise  of  prudence,  may  well 
have  the  effect  in  a  generous  mind  to  strengthen  more 
than  weaken  the  impulse  towards  self-sacrifice.  Here 
Lindsey  was  helped  by  the  noble  spirit  of  his  wife,  herself 
a  clergyman's  daughter,  of  more  natural  courage  and  a 
more  practical  temper  than  his  own,  along  with  great 
reverence  of  his  character  and  work,  and  a  tender  esteem 
of  his  serener  quality,  calling  him  "  one  of  the  best,  gentlest, 
and  most  indulgent  of  human  beings."  She  had  heartily 
shared  in  his  unstinted  neighborly  charities,  and  as  heartily 
stood  by  him  now  in  whatever  loss  he  might  take  upon 
himself.''     Seeing  the  peril  of  insincerity  in  all  creeds,  he 

1  Rutt's  "  Life  of  Priestley,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  82.     (Citation  much  condensed.) 

2  A  most  interesting  sketch  of  this  admirable  woman  is  given  by  her  friend 
Mrs.  Cappe  in  the  "  Monthly  Repository"  of  February,  1812.  When,  rally- 
ing from  a  painful  illness,  her  husband  spoke  of  the  burden  upon  his  mind  in 
holding  his  position,  her  prompt  reply  was,  "  Then  relinquish  it:  God  will 


LIXDSEY  IN  LONDON.  151 

had  taken  an  active  share  in  the  efforts,  made  among-  men 
of  other  calHngs  as  well  as  clergymen,  to  have  the  terms 
of  subscription  lightened  by  public  law,  "  traveling  up- 
wards of  two  thousand  miles  in  the  winter  of  1771-72  to 
obtain  signatures  to  the  petition  "  for  that  object.  As 
these  efforts  were  baffied,  he  consented  to  remain  only 
while  some  hope  remained  that  the  relief  might  be  granted. 
When  this  hope  was  finally  lost,  he  did  not  delay  to  quit 
his  charge,  preaching  his  farewell  words  November  28, 
1773,  having  just  passed  his  fiftieth  year. 

The  real  interest  in  Lindsey's  withdrawal  from  the 
church  is — as  that  of  every  religious  crisis — less  a  doctrinal 
than  a  moral  or  spiritual  interest.  It  brought  to  the  front 
the  question  of  conscience  in  the  assent  to  dogma,  which 
has  been  and  still  is  smothered  under  reasons  of  a  supposed 
expediency,  that  can  be  cut  only  by  the  sharp  sword  of  in- 
dividual conviction.  To  meet  this  question,  we  could  not 
well  invent  a  finer  test  case  than  his :  the  scholarly  temper, 
the  conservative  habit,  the  restraints  of  friendsliip,  the 
love  of  consecrated  forms  (for  to  the  end  of  his  life  he  used 
a  very  moderately  revised  edition  of  the  church  liturgy), 
the  devotion  to  professional  duty,  the  kindly  surroundings 
and  modest  refinements  of  life  familiar  to  him  up  to  the 
age  of  fifty  ;  and,  as  against  them  all,  the  abrupt  entrance 
upon  a  way  of  life  in  which,  most  literally,  "  he  knew  not 
whither  he  went."  His  former  bounties,  and  his  wife's, 
had  left  them  in  a  condition  liardly  a  step  from  downright 
and  pressing  poverty.  Furniture,  plate,  and  books  all  had 
to  be  sold.  Coming  to  London,  they  could  for  some  years, 
in  exchange  for  tiieir  fair  country  \-icarage,  occupy  only  two 
small  rooms  on  the  ground  floor  of  a  tenement  in  Holborn. 

]iroviilc."  In  an  c']Ti(lcmic  of  smallpox  she  caused  tlic  children  of  that  and 
neighhoring  parishes  to  be  inoculated,  attending  personally  to  all  the  cases 
(we  are  told),  of  which  she  lost  not  one.  (This  was  before  vaccination,  which 
was  discovered  in  1796.) 


152  THE    UNITAKIAXS.  [Chai'.  vii. 

Of  all  their  many  church  friends,  not  one  appears  to  have 
spoken  a  word  of  encouragement  or  sympathy,  or  to  hav^e 
lifted  a  hand  to  help.' 

But  new  friends  soon  gathered  around  him,  including 
such  names  as  Priestley,  Franklin,  and  Price.  He  busied 
himself  with  his  "  Apology,"  and  other  writings  which  this 
led  to;  also  with  a  series  of  studies  and  discussions  of  mat- 
ters congenial,  including  a  criticism  of  Gibbon,  a  history  of 
Unitarianism,  a  reply  to  Robertson,  a  defense  of  Priestley. 
Tasks  like  these  were  spread  over  a  period  of  nearly  twenty 
years.  But  most  permanent  of  his  works  was  the  build- 
ing of  Essex  Street  Chapel,  in  1778,  which  first  organized 
Unitarian  Dissent  as  a  working  force  in  the  religious  life  of 
England.  In  this  he  was  so  well  helped  by  friends  and 
circumstances  as  to  be  both  minister  and  part-proprietor 
of  the  chapel  in  which  he  served  for  fifteen  years.  He 
definitely  relinquished  the  pulpit  at  the  age  of  seventy, 
refusing  ever  to  occupy  it  again,  though  he  persevered  in 
busy  activities  till  near  his  death,  in  1808,  at  the  age  of 
eighty-five.  Three  years  before  he  had  published  "  Con- 
versations on  the  Divine  Government,"  perhaps  his  most 
characteristic  essay.  In  it  he  pleads  for  the  essential 
goodness  and  justice  of  God  as  displayed  in  nature, 
and  meets,  by  his  ardent  faith  in  a  future  state  of  disci- 
pline and  purification,  the  question  how  evil — nay,  such 
horrors  as  those  of  the  Canaanitish  conquest — may  be 
permitted  or  even  ordained  by  a  righteous  Sovereign  of 
the  world. 

What  had  long  been  pretty  widely  held  as  individual 
opinion  had  now  found  a  local  habitation  and  a  name. 
Within  ten  years  after  Lindsey's  death  "  the  great  body  " 
of  those  Presbyterian  congregations  not  bound  by  the  terms 
of  their  foundation  to  orthodox  formularies  were  avowedly 

1  "  Monthly  Repository,"  December,  iSo8.     (Letter  of  Mrs.  Cappe. ) 


THE  EARLIER    UNITARIAN  DISSENT.  153 

Unitarian.^  In  181 3  the  old  stigma  of  legal  disabilities, 
which  till  then  cast  a  shadow  on  the  name,  was  blotted  out. 
In  1825  the  several  provisional  bodies  established  to  spread 
and  maintain  the  doctrine  were  merged  in  the  British  and 
Foreign  Unitarian  Association,  which  has  its  present  head- 
•quarters  in  Essex  Hall,  once  Theophilus  Lindsey's  chapel. 
It  now  represents  between  three  and  four  hundretl  congre- 
gations, widely  various  in  origin  and  name,  that  sustain  its 
agencies  at  home  and  abroad.  The  only  outside  opposition 
tliat  has  seriously  embarrassed  them  was  that  raised  against 
their  legal  right  to  iiold  certain  endowments  or  bequests 
(especially  the  "  Lady  Hewley's  Charity  "  fund)  given  for 
religious  as  well  as  charitable  uses,  or  the  continued  pos- 
session of  their  old  meeting-houses.-  The  judicial  decision 
was  against  both  these  rights  ;  but  the  latter  was  deter- 
mined in  their  favor  by  the  "  Dissenters'  Chapels  Act  "  of 
1844.  Since  then  Unitarians  stand  on  an  equal  level  of 
civil  rights  with  every  other  religious  body. 

Down  to  this  last  date  or  near  it — that  is,  for  a  term 
of  about  seventy  years — English  Unitarianism  was  well 
known  by  a  form  of  doctrine,  a  style  of  Scripture  exposi- 
tion, and  a  type  of  the  religious  life  pretty  accurately  de- 
fined and  closely  consistent  with  itself.  It  grew  out  of  a 
movement  of  thought  whose  general  course  has  now  been 
traced,  under  conditions  which  became  manifest  as  the 
main  stream  of  the  Reformation  ran  out  into  separate 
channels.  Another  period  has  followed  since,  in  which 
old  dogmas,  arguments,  and  lines  of  sect  are  of  less  and 
less  account.  Within  the  limits  thus  defined,  we  have 
now  to  trace  its  doctrinal   features,  and  the  course  of  its 

1  "  Encyclopxdia  Biit.innica. "  For  the  decline  of  Presljyterianism  at 
this  date,- see  "Monthly  Repository"  of  1813,  p.  183;  comparing  1809, 
p.  486. 

-  Tiie  points  involved  are  very  fully  set  forth  in  the  "  Monthly  Reposi- 
tory "  of  July  and  September,  1S17,  pp.  430,  505. 


154  '^l^E    UNITARIANS.  [Cii.U'.  \  ii. 

denominational  history.      This  will  be  best  shown  in  a  series 
of  representative  names. 

Joseph  Priestley  (i  733-1804),  for  forty  years  an  intimate 
friend  and  correspondent  of  Lindsey,  may  be  said  almost 
alone  to  have  shaped  the  system  of  opinion  by  whicli  the 
Unitarianism  of  that  period  is  best  known.  At  the  same 
time,  with  a  fluency  and  versatility  of  composition  almost 
unrivaled,  he  created  a  considerable  body  of  literature, 
scientific  as  well  as  religious,  much  of  which  has  ^'alue  to 
this  day.  The  forty-eight  volumes  of  his  works  omit  a 
considerable  part  of  what  he  published  "in  his  lifetime. 
Besides  these,  a  mass  of  correspondence,  innumerable  ex- 
periments, studies,  and  observations  in  natural  science,  and 
a  very  laborious  career  as  teacher  and  preacher,  witness 
the  extraordinary  activity  of  his  mind.^  He  was  in  the 
front  rank  of  chemists  of  his  day,  and  did  more,  perhaps, 
than  any  other  one  man  to  carry  that  science  over  the 
steps  that  led  directly  to  its  reconstruction  by  Lavoisier 
and  Dalton.  He  was  the  companion  or  correspondent 
of  Franklin  in  his  studies  of  electricity ;  an  honored  guest 
and  associate  among  the  men  of  science  whom  he  visited 
in  Paris.  With  his  friend  Dr.  Richard  Price  he  had  an 
eager  and  hopeful  interest  in  the  earlier  steps  of  the  French 
Revolution  ;  and  was,  under  the  charge  of  republicanism, 
mobbed  and  almost  beggared  in  a  frightful  riot  at  Birming- 
ham, in  1 79 1.  Coming  to  America  in  1794,  past  the  age 
of  sixty-one,  he  corresponded  with  Jefferson  and  others- 
on  the  latest  ideas  in  political  and  social  science.  Through 
all,  with  a  wonderful  sweetness  of  temper  and  an  intel- 
lectual courage  equally  rare, — "  a  heretic  who  was  yet  a 
saint,"  as  Huxley  says  of  him, — he  devoted  himself  to  the 
one  great  purpose  of  his  life,  in  developing,   illustrating, 

1   .A  list  of  108  of  his  pul)lislic'l  writ'n^s,  including  p:uiiplilcls  but  not  his 
numberless  magazine  articles,  fills  eight  pages  of  his  memoir. 


JOSEPH  PRIESTLEY.  I  55 

and  defendini^  his  conception  of  relit^ious  truth.  He  de- 
chired  himseU'  a  Christian  amonsj^  those  scientists  in  Paris 
who  told  him  he  was  the  first  man  of  sense  they  had  seen 
that  beheved  in  God,  and  proved  his  faith  as  serenely  in 
obloquy  or  exile  as  in  the  calm  piety  of  his  dying  hours. 

He  was  born  near  Leeds,  of  a  Dissenting  family  rigidly 
orthodox  and  scrupulously  pious  ;  learned  tiie  Westminster 
Shorter  Catechism  byjieart,  and  was  taught  to  pray  aloud 
in  his  own  words  at  six.  Losing  his  mother  at  that  age, 
he  was  brought  up  by  an  aunt  of  austere  Calvinistic  faith, 
who  helped  him  generously,  as  well,  in  his  early  schooling. 
At  eleven  he  was  experimenting  on  the  breathing  capacity 
of  spiders.  In  the  year  or  two  following  he  was  studying 
both  Latin  and  Greek,  and  "  rarely  spent  an  hour  for  any 
recreation,"  though  in  this  time  he  read  most  of  Bunyan's 
works.  His  health,  generally  invulnerable,  began  (no 
wonder)  to  fail  him  here,  and  he  was  on  the  point  of 
accepting  a  post  in  a  commercial  house  at  Lisbon.  Re- 
covering, w'e  find  him  at  seventeen  dissuaded  from  study- 
ing Rabbinic  lore,  having  already  learned  the  biblical 
Hebrew,  which  he  taught  at  eighteen.  He  had  then,  or 
a  little  later,  read  the  Hebrew  Bible  twice  through,  and 
more.  This  he  tells  in  self-defense  against  Horsley's 
slurs  upon  his  learning.  Seeking  church-member.ship  about 
this  time,  he  was  refused  because  he  could  not  admit  that 
all  men  are  personally  guilty  in  Adam's  sin,  having  been 
influenced  by  one  of  his  teachers,  a  "  Baxterian."  At 
twenty,  with  a  fellow-student,  he  formed  the  practice  of 
reading,  in  addition  to  their  routine  work,  ten  folio  pages 
of  Greek  daily,  besides  a  Greek  play  or  two  each  month. 
Afterwards,  when  a  teacher  at  a  salary  of  thirty  pounds, 
his  hours  of  instruction  were  eleven  a  day  ;  and  holidays, 
except  "  red-letter  days,"  seem  to  have  been  a  thing  un- 
known. 


156  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  vii. 

The  twelve  years  from  twenty-eight  to  forty  were 
divided  between  the  charge  of  the  Dissenting  academy  at 
Warrington  and  a  congregation  at  Leeds.  His  work  as  a 
preacher,  which  he  had  most  at  heart,  was  embarrassed  by 
an  hereditary  defect  of  speech,  which  was  a  help  to  him, 
he  says,  by  saving  him  from  any  ambition  to  shine  in  con- 
versation or  seek  popular  applause  in  the  pulpit.  While 
at  Warrington  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Dr.  Price, 
whose  liberalism  in  politics  he  warmly  shared ;  and  corre- 
sponded with  Franklin  (then  in  London),  by  whose  advice 
he  wrote  a  rapid  but  very  successful  history  of  discoveries 
in  electricity.  His  Arianism  had  at  first  been  a  bar  from 
the  Dissenting  pulpit,  though  he  entered  on  his  work  at 
Leeds  an  avowed  "  Socinian  "  ;  and  here  he  formed  the  in- 
timate friendship  with  Lindsey  which  so  strongly  influenced 
the  life-work  of  both. 

He  had  been  at  twenty  a  student  of  Hartley's  philoso- 
phy, which  vividly  illustrates  by  nerve- vibration  the  associ- 
ation of  ideas,  and  so  was  already  led  towards  that  view 
of  philosophical  necessity  which  remained  his  belief  through 
life  and  deeply  tinged  the  early  Unitarian  theology.  His 
Necessarianism  was,  however,  a  strictly  religious  doctrine, 
corresponding  in  a  wide  way  with  what  we  should  call  a 
Moral  Order  of  the  universe,  or  in  a  narrower  way  with 
what  we  call  Laws  of  Mind,  as  distinct  from  spontaneous 
and  wanton  Freewill  on  one  side,  or  a  purely  scientific 
Determinism  on  the  other.  Moral  liberty  of  choice,  under 
these  conditions,  it  does  not  appear  that  (illogical  or  not) 
he  ever  let  go.  But  the  singular  serenity  of  his  faith  he 
always  ascribed  to  the  firm  hold  which  the  Necessarian 
philosophy  had  upon  his  mind.  At  twenty-five  he  had 
relinquished  the  Calvinistic  doctrine  of  Atonement ;  also, 
it  would  seem,  that  of  Election,  which  his  more  orthodox 


PRIESTLEY'S  MATERIALISM.  157 

friends  vainly  tried  to  convince  him  was  logically  a  part  of 
his  scheme  of  a  Divine  Necessity.  His  free  commenting 
on  the  argument  in  some  of  Paul's  Epistles  had  further 
brought  rebuke  from  the  learned  apologist  Lardner,  with 
whom  he  conferred  on  the  historical  evidences  of  Christi- 
anity. These  studies,  with  comparison  of  the  Septuagint 
and  the  Hebrew  text,  mark  his  advance  in  doctrinal  and 
critical  theology  up  to  the  age  of  thirty-five. 

During  a  seven  years'  engagement  as  librarian  and  tutor 
in  the  family  of  Lord  Shelburne  (1773-80)  his  reputa- 
tion as  an  experimenter  and  disco\'erer  in  physics  reached 
its  height.  Just  then,  his  and  Franklin's  were  the  most 
shining  names  in  that  field  of  science.  His  careful  study 
of  certain  conditions  of  organic  life  in  a  long  series  of  ex- 
periments on  air,  and  the  deep  sense  of  the  "  mystery  of 
matter "  which  they  induced,  had  effect  in  developing 
\Yhat  is  commonly  called  Priestley's  materialism.  It  was, 
indeed,  the  natural  sequence,  and  simplification,  of  his 
view  of  philosophical  necessity.  Like  that,  he  held  it  as 
a  strictly  religious  \-iew.  \w  our  day  we  sliould  state  it  in 
terms  of  the  One  Force  familiar  to  the  language  of  recent 
science.  In  substance  (as  has  been  remarked)  his  "  mate- 
rialism "  differs  only  in  terms  from  Berkeley's  "  idealism  "  : 
each  is  simply  a  challenge  of  the  "  dualisn-w"  taught  in  our 
common  speech.  That  mind  and  matter  are  two  inde- 
pendent "substances"  in  the  make-up  of  the  human  con- 
stitution, which  he  had  thought  at  first,  he  dismissed  as  a 
metaphysical  fiction.  Scientifically,  we  have  to  do  only 
with  a  single  series  of  facts,  in  which  body  and  soul  are 
quite  undistinguishable — at  least,  inseparable;  and  in  this 
view  he  is  undisturbed  by  any  consciousness  of  a  dualism 
implied  in  the  notion  of  moral  liberty.  That  view,  it  is 
true,  denies  the  natural  immortality  of  man  as  a  conscious 


158  THE    UXITARIANS.  [Chap.  vii. 

person ;  but  "  he  held,  with  an  ahnost  naive  reahsm,  that 
man  would  be  raised  from  the  dead  by  a  direct  exertion 
of  the  power  of  God,  and  thereafter  be  immortal."  ^ 

Priestley's  residence  in  Birmingham,  from  1780  to 
1 791,  is  the  happiest  and  the  culminating  period  of  his 
intellectual  life.  In  a  retrospect  written  at  the  age  of 
fifty-four  he  tells  us  something  of  his  mental  habits,  and 
of  the  almost  perfect  nervous  health  which  enabled  him 
to  do  the  work  of  a  long  life  almost  without  an  hour's 
loss  from  illness  or  pain  or  lack  of  sleep.  We  learn,  too, 
of  his  easy  rapidity  of  touch — he  was  early  a  master 
of  shorthand — such  that  he  dispatched  a  translation  of 
Psalms,  Proverbs,  and  Ecclesiastes  within  a  month ;  and 
that  "  besides  his  miscellaneous  reading,  which  was  at  all 
times  very  great,  he  read  through  all  the  works  quoted 
in  his  comparison  of  the  different  systems  of  Grecian 
philosophy  with  Christianity,  composed  that  work,  and 
transcribed  the  whole  of  it,  in  less  than  three  months!" 
And  we  see  him  as  a  lecturer,  "  a  man  of  about  middling 
stature,  slenderly  made,  remarkably  placid,  modest,  and 
courteous,  pouring  out  with  the  simplicity  of  a  child  the 
great  stores  of  his  most  capacious  mind." 

He  had  expressed  in  a  political  essay  some  approval  of 
the  republican  *theory  of  government  (though  wholly 
loyal  to  his  own),  and  had  admitted  the  right  of  revolution 
under  a  desperate  tyranny.  This,  in  the  temper  of  that 
day,  was  enough  to  confound  him  with  the  French  revo- 
lutionary madness.  In  May,  1791,  came  an  outburst  of 
blind  mob  fury  sharpened  by  ecclesiastical  bigotry  and 
hate.  His  chapel  was  burned.  His  house,  which  the 
mob  tried  to  set  on  fire  by  sparks  from  his  own  electrical 
machine,  was  wrecked.  His  furniture,  library,  and  "  the 
most  truly  valuable  and  useful  apparatus  of  philosophical 

1   Huxley's  "Address  at  Birmingliaiu  in  1891,"  p.  18. 


PR/ESTLEV  EV  AMERICA ;    THOMAS  BEES  HAM.      159 

instruments,"  he  says,  "  that  perhaps  any  individual  in  this 
or  any  other  country  was  ever  possessed  of,"  were  totally 
destroyed.  The  money  loss  he  reckoned  at  more  than 
$150,000,  of  which  a  small  part  was  afterwards  recovered. 
His  life  was  saved  by  flight  to  London,  with  his  wife, 
traveling  painfully  by  night.  All  chances  of  occupation 
were  hazardous  while  the  reactionary  fury  lasted.  And 
so,  in  I  794,  at  the  age  of  sixty-one,  relinquishing  a  modest 
lectureship  at  Hackney,  he  removed  with  his  family  to 
America.  His  latter  days  were  spent  in  Northumber- 
land, Pa.,  in  the  hope  that  his  children  might  grow  up  near 
a  projected  liberty-loving  colony,  which  never  came  to 
birth;  and  here  he  died  in  1804.  "  His  theological  assail- 
ants in  England  had  echoed,  perhaps  prompted,  the  vilest 
execrations  of  the  Birmingham  mob.  Edmund  Burke, 
with  superfluous  disdain,  refused  to  answer  or  even  to 
notice  an  appeal  for  justice  in  behalf  of  this  ecclesiastical 
outlaw.  At  a  local  gathering  of  clergy  (we  are  told)  one 
man  said  that  he  would  gladly  set  the  torch  with  his  own 
hand  to  a  pile  of  Priestley's  writings,  and  burn  the  author 
alive  with  them  ;  and  the  rest,  applauding,  declared  them- 
selves ready  to  do  the  same.  Such  was  the  insolence  of 
theologic  hate  in  England  a  hundred  years  ago!"  ' 

The  immediate  successor  of  Priestley  in  his  work  at 
Hackney  was  Thomas  Belsham  (i  750-1829),  who  also 
followed  Lindsey  in  Essex  Street  a  few  years  later,  and 
thus  becomes  a  link  between  the  past  and  the  living  gen- 
eration. Born  and  bred  among  the  orthodox  Dissenters, 
he  was  the  first  of  that  body  to  resign  a  position  of  trust 
and  influence  to  join  the  Unitarians,  at  a  time  when,  as  he 
said,  "  a  Socinian  is  still  a  sort  of  monster  in  the  world." 
He  did  this  not  under  any  pressure  that  especially  galled 
his  conscience,  since  the  conditions  of  his  office  as  head  of 

'   From  .nil  .iddress  {lelivcrctl  in  IMiiladelpliia  in  February,   1886. 


l6o  THE   UNITARIAiYS.  [Chap.  vii. 

a  Dissenting  academy  left  him  very  free ;  nor  yet  with  a 
glad  courage,  since  he  was  of  somber  temperament,  weighed 
with  the  burden  of  the  flesh,  distrustful  of  himself,  near 
the  age  of  forty,  looking  only  to  obscure  quiet  with  a  pit- 
tance in  some  country  town.  It  was  sheer  dogged  British 
honesty  of  conviction.  He  tells  in  his  "  Calm  Inquiry  " 
the  method  he  took  with  his  pupils  in  their  study  of  the 
Bible :  that  they  should  copy  out  and  classify  the  texts 
that  made  for  or  against  the  doctrine  under, discussion ; 
and  how,  to  his  own  great  surprise,  and  reluctantly,  he 
found  himself  slowly  drawn  over  to  the  new  belief,  and  he 
could  no  longer  serve  with  a  neutral  or  divided  mind. 

This  sturdy  honesty,  with  much  industry  and  a  fair 
amount  of  learning,  made  Mr.  Belsham's  strength  and 
gave  him  a  certain  eminence  among  his  fellows.  More 
than  most  of  them,  he  was  known  as  a  controversial  advo- 
cate of  the  Unitarian  doctrine ;  more  than  most  of  them, 
he  inclined  to  rationalize  it.  Some  among  them  were 
"  Arians,"  holding  that  Christ  in  person  was  agent  of  the 
Almighty  in  creating  the  universe.  Others,  still  calling 
themselves  Arians,  held  that  he  may  be  regarded  as  the 
Maker  of  the  earth,  and  possibly  of  the  entire  solar  system. 
Others  ascribed  to  him  only  a  shadowy  and  (so  to  speak) 
official  preexistence.  But  all  such,  he  thought,  could  not 
be  honestly  regarded  as  Unitarians,  holding  as  he  did  "  the 
simple  and  proper  humanity  of  Christ."  There  was  in  his 
mind,  apparently,  a  reaction  from  the  anxious  and  brood- 
ing introspection  that  meets  us  in  the  religious  journal  he 
scrupulously  kept  in  his  earlier  years.  The  "  indwelling  " 
scheme  by  which  Doddridge  had  disguised  from  himself 
his  own  lapses  from  orthodoxy  repelled  the  more  blunt  and 
candid  mind  of  Belsham.  He  followed  stiffly  the  lead  of 
his  slowly  maturing  conviction  as  far  as  his  loyalty  to  the 
letter  of  the  Bible  would  allow.      He  was  much  troubled. 


THOMAS  BELSIIAM ;    LA  XT  CAKPEXTER.  l6l 

on  the  other  part,  by  the  Increasincj  tendency  of  his  time 
to  "  infidehty,"  or  open  rationahsm.  His  best  known  Ht- 
erary  work  was  done  as  chief  editor  of  the  "  Improved  Ver- 
sion of  the  New  Testament,"  which  exhibits  and  defends 
the  Unitarian  criticism  of  its  day ;  ^  and  in  a  translation 
with  exposition  of  Paul's  Epistles,  which  he  holds  to  be 
only  in  small  jxirt  doctrinal,  mostly  for  practical  teaching 
and  eciification.  Of  far  narrower  range  than  Priestley, 
he  adopted  in  general  the  same  views,  including,  with 
some  demur,  that  of  philosophical  necessity,  w^hich  he  ex- 
presses in  the  proposition  that  all  events  are  brought  to 
pass  by  "one  governing  Will."  His  name  is  held,  per- 
haps not  quite  justly,  to  stand  for  that  highly  respectable 
but  frigid  and  formal  piety  which  Unitarianism  in  his  day 
was  commonly  supposed  to  be. 

That  this  estimate  of  it  was  narrow  and  unjust  w^e  have 
the  best  proof  possible  in  the  honored  and  beloved  name 
of  Lant  Carpenter  (i  780-1840),  w^hose  life  of  sixty  years 
brings  to  a  fit  close  this  period  of  our  history.  Unlike  all 
the  others  who  have  been  named,  he  was  born  and  edu- 
cated among  influences  purely  Unitarian.  Owing  to  his 
father's  failure  in  business,  he  was  adopted  by  a  mater- 
nal relative,  a  liberal  Dissenter  of  Kidderminster,  in  whose 
household  a  native  sweetness  and  vivacity  of  temper  w^on 
to  him  warm  affection  from  the  beginning.  The  trait 
which  most  distinguished  him  through  life  was  a  certain 
moral  genius  in  the  work  of  education,  with  an  eager  and 
painstaking  fidelity  that  gave  him  a  singular  influence 
with  the  young.      Among  the  memories  of  his  childhood, 

1  Unitarians  generally  have  been  made  somehow  responsible  for  this  ver- 
sion, with  which  they  ap])ear,  on  the  contrary,  to  have  been  "  cgregiously 
disappointed"  (see  "Monthly  Repository  "  for  December,  1808).  It  was 
blamed  for  taking  as  a  basis,  instead  of  Wakefield's,  Archbishop  Newcome's 
translation,  which  follows  the  text  of  Clricsbach,  and  then  departing  from  that 
text  in  numerous  cases,  of  which  a  list  is  given  in  the  "  Repository."  It  soon 
met  the  fate  of  other  revised  versions,  falling  completely  into  disuse. 


1 62  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap,  vii. 

it  is  told  that,  when  a  boy  of  about  eleven,  wishing  to  give 
daily  lessons  to  a  class  of  his  Sunday-school  pupils,  he 
would  meet  them — as  the  only  hour  of  the  day  when  they 
had  not  to  work  for  their  living — at  four  in  the  morning, 
summer  and  winter — "  in  summer  under  a  mulberry  tree, 
at  other  times  in  a  little  summer-house  without  fire  " — giv- 
ing them  "  their  hour's  instruction  in  writing,  arithmetic, 
and  other  branches  of  useful  knowledge."  That  sacred 
passion  of  apostleship  remained  with  him  to  the  last,  and 
very  largely  aided  to  shape  his  work  in  life. 

Dr.  Carpenter  ^  accepted  in  its  best  religious  sense  and 
with  great  ardor  of  conviction  the  doctrine  in  which  he 
had  been  taught.  It  does  not  appear  that  through  life  he 
added  anything  to  it  or  took  anything  away  from  it.  He 
gave  to  it,  simply,  the  great  weight  of  his  admirable  ex- 
ample, with  the  defense  of  a  spirited,  elaborate,  and  (to 
him)  somewhat  costly  reply  to  a  scornful  attack  made  by 
Bishop  Magee  in  his  treatise  on  the  Atonement.  In  his 
college  days,  at  the  age  of  twenty-one,  he  had  gone  stu- 
diously and  (as  he  deemed)  thoroughly  over  the  ground  of 
the  Christian  evidences  as  exhibited  by  Lardner  and  Paley ; 
and  the  clear  conviction  to  which  he  came  then,  he  never 
wavered  in.  This  belief  of  his,  the  Unitarianism  of  that 
day,  was  scrupulously  defined  against  every  form  of  trin- 
itarian  doctrine  on  one  side,  and  as  scrupulou.sly  guarded 
against  any  departure  from  the  letter  of  the  Bible  on 
the  other,  following  a  straight  and  narrow  path  of  literal 
interpretation.  The  New  Testament,  in  the  improved 
text  and  version,  was  taken,  uncritically,  as  of  absolute  and 
final  authority.  This  was  no  mere  formal  postulate  of  a 
school  in  theology.  In  a  private  letter,  written  past  middle 
life  to  a  grown-up  daughter,  he  urges  that  "  the  Scriptures 

1  He  received  at  the  age  of  twenty-six  the  honorary  degree  of  LL.D.  from 
the  University  of  Glasgow,  where  he  had  been  a  student  of  distinction. 


LA  XT  CARPENTER.  1 63 

are  our  only  gitidc.''  To  this  literalism  appears  a  sint^le 
qualification  :  that  (on  the  ground  of  a  doubt  whether  the 
first  two  chapters  of  the  Testament  make  part  of  the  i^ospel 
as  originally  written)  the  story  of  the  birth  of  Jesus  is  in- 
terpreted as  a  natural  event,  though  revealed  in  a  halo  of 
mystery  and  miracle.  This  view  is  taken  in  his  "  Harmony 
of  the  Gospels,"  the  maturest  labor  of  his  life. 

The  double  burden  of  a  large  family  school  with  his  im- 
portant parish  charge  in  Bristol,  added  to  public  respon- 
sibilities which  he  could  not  avoid,  was  slowly — nay, 
swiftly — undermining  his  life.^  While  his  father  lived  to 
ninety-five,  he  was  an  old  man  at  fifty.  To  secure  time 
for  the  tasks  he  had  most  at  heart,  he  would  go  to  his 
study  at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning,  especially  in  winter 
when  he  enjoyed  the  quiet  most,  and  appear  at  breakfast 
witii  a  radiant  face,  saying,  "  I  have  been  with  our  Lord 
in  Galilee  this  morning!  "  But  then  came  the  unescapable 
burden  of  the  day's  instruction,  and  the  weight  of  other 
cares ;  for  he  was  a  most  faithful  and  tender  pastor,  and 
one  of  the  most  copious  of  correspondents.  It  was  inevitable 
that  his  strength  should  break  down,  once  and  again,  in 
sickness  threatening  to  be  fatal.  As  he  approached  his 
sixtieth  year,  the  end  of  his  working  day  seemed  to  have 
come.  His  last  journey  was  undertaken  to  secure  a  year 
of  rest  in  southern  Europe.  Sailing  from  Naples  in  a 
coasting  steamer,  he  was  washed  or  fell  overboard  in  a 
storm  at  night,  two  months  before  he  reached  the  age  of 
sixty. 

The  events  of  the  long  Continental  struggle  (i  793-1815), 
with  the  changes  that  slowly  came  about  in  the  condition 
of  the  laboring  classes,  had  powerfully  turned  the  religious 
minds  of  luigland  to  political  and  social  questions.  This 
influence  was,  perhaps,  most  strongly  felt  among  the 
Nonconformists,    and    of   these,    chiefly  among  the  most 


1 64  THE   UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  vii. 

liberal.  We  have  seen  how  Priestley  and  Price  had  been 
identified  with  the  revolutionary  party.  At  a  later  day, 
the  correspondence  both  of  Belsham  and  of  Dr.  Carpenter 
often  shows  the  close  relations  they  were  drawn  into  with 
leading"  statesmen  by  the  common  interest  in  liberal  poli- 
tics. This  interest  was  much  quickened  by  the  steps  taken 
in  181 3  to  relieve  Unitarians  from  the  legal  disabilities 
they  still  lay  under.  Then,  having  gained  this  relief,  they 
were  generously  eager  to  aid  in  the  measures  that  brought 
about  the  Catholic  emancipation  of  1829.  In  these  efforts, 
in  the  work  of  general  education,  in  the  abolition  of  such 
oppressive  burdens  as  the  window  tax  and  the  restrictions 
upon  labor-union,  in  negro  emancipation,  in  temperance 
legislation,  and  the  repeal  of  the  scandalous  "  Contagious- 
Diseases  Act,"  the  names  of  leading  Unitarians  have  been 
honorably  prominent.  Among  the  terrors  of  the  riot  in 
Bristol  that  grew  from  the  reactionary  fury  against  the 
Reform  Act  of  1832,  Dr.  Carpenter  appears  conspicuous 
as  advocate,  witness,  or  narrator, — not  going  out  of  his 
professional  sphere,  but  listened  to  in  it  with  deep  respect, 
and  carrying  weight  in  high  political  circles  by  the  simple 
authority  of  his  name.  The  religious  body  he  was  con- 
nected with  now  felt  itself  respected  and  influential,  nu- 
merous enough  to  assure  itself  of  a  rapid  growth  and  a 
power  for  righteousness  which  it  has  never  quite  reached  ; 
and  of  a  hold  upon  the  future,  as  a  strong  and  united 
body,  which  at  this  day  it  can  scarce  venture  any  longer 
to  look  forward  to. 

What  honorable  rank  it  had  won  in  the  world  of  letters 
is  best  seen  in  such  names  as  those'  of  William  Ro.scoe, 
Samuel  T.  Coleridge,  John  Bowring,  and  a  few  others, 
brilliant  pioneers  of  a  more  brilliant  day  that  has  followed. 
How  well  Dr.  Carpenter's  own  work  has  been  carried  on 
by   his   children,   especially   in    the    contributions  of   Dr. 


LATER   EXGLISH   UXrrARIAiYS. 


165 


William   B.    Carpenter  to   scientific  ethics,   and    of   Mary 
Carpenter  in  practical  philanthropy,  is  well  known.      The 
most  familiar  type  of  the  thought-and  life  associated  with 
Unitarian  forms  of  piety  is  perhaps  to  be  found  in  a  group 
ot  highly  cultivated  women,  whose  names  have  been  house- 
hold words  to  more  than  one  generation  :  Catherine  Cappe, 
Helen  Maria  Williams,  Lucy  Aikin,    Anna  Lajtitia  Bar- 
bauld,   Maria  Edgeworth,  Joanna  Baillie,  Harriet  Marti- 
neau,   Sarah    Flower  Adams.      Their  form  ef  piety  has 
more  of  the  serenity,  the  cheerful  gravity,  and  the  eth- 
ical glow  of  the  religious  life  than  of  its  depth,  passion- 
ate contrition,  or  ecstatic  rapture;    and  it  is  more  readily 
associated  with  household  affections,  practical  moralities, 
and  the  plain  duties  of  every  day,  than  with   the  great 
heroic    enterprises   of   Christian    faith.     There   was    thus 
danger  in  it  of  a  narrowing,  even  hardening  tendency,  of 
which  the  finest  spirits  would  be  soonest  aware. 

Yet  this  peril,  even  if  it  were  real,  has  been  much  ex- 
aggerated in   unfriendly  judgments.      In  the  words  of  a 
near  and  intelligent  student  of  the  religious  movement  we 
have  traced,  "  In  spite  of  the  apixirent  materialism  which  • 
made    the    editors   of  a   Warrington    hymn-book  (some- 
where m  the  twentie-s)  boast  of  haxing  avoided   the  term 
soul,  as  a  word  calculated  to  rouse  unpleasant  associations, 
there  was  a  deep  and  earnest   and    unpretending   piety.' 
There  was,  however,"  he  continues,  "a  great  difference  in 
denommational  zeal  between  those  who  had,  as  descend- 
ants of  the  early  English  Presbyterians,  gradually  become 
Unitarians,  and   those   who— like   Lindsey   and   Belsham 
and  Aspland— came  over  from  the  Church  or  the  Calvin- 
istic  Nonconformists.     The  latter  initiated  the  movement 
for  the   Unitarian   name;  they  first  designated  chapels  as 
Unitarian;   they  began  to  institute  '  closed  trusts,'  which 
were    opposed    to    the  Presbyterian  principle,   and   have 


1 66  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  vii. 

been  a  trouble  ever  since.  The  general  attitude  of  non- 
subscribing  Presbyterians  is  sketched  by  the  Rev.  J.  J. 
Tayler  in  his  '  Retrospe;ct  of  the  Religious  Life  of  Eng- 
land ' ;  and  some'  important  applications  of  their  princi- 
ples are  made  by  Dr.  Martineau  in  his  letters  to  Mr.  Mac- 
donald."  ^ 

The  tendency  to  a  stricter  denominationalism,  with  per- 
haps a  too  easy  self-content,  was  suddenly  broken  near  the 
end  of  the  period  we  have  now  surveyed.  A  challenge 
wonderfully  different  in  tone  was  sounded ;  an  intellectual 
horizon  was  opened  up  vastly  broader  than  anything  we 
have  thus  far  found.  Early  in  the  year  1836  was  pub- 
lished "  The  Rationale  of  Religious  Inquiry,"  a  thin  volume 
of  six  lectures  by  James  Martineau.  This  book,  little  but 
precious,  struck  the  keynote  of  the  higher  criticism  that 
has  been  followed  out  since  in  many  lines  of  thought. 
The  writer  was  a  young  preacher,  then  settled  in  Liver- 
pool, a  man  of  thirty-one,  educated  first  for  the  profession 
of  civil  engineering,  who  had  come  with  singular  intellectual 
freshness,  wealth,  and  courage  into  the  field  of  theology ; 
who  had  relinquished  a  Dublin  pulpit,  choosing  at  twenty- 
six  the  independence  of  a  laborious  and  doubtful  self-sup- 
port before  the  government  grant  his  congregation  were 
entitled  to  receive ;  whose  riper  philosophical  studies  had 
led  him  away  from  the  conventional  Necessarianism  of  the 
English  Unitarians  of  that  day, — though  in  retracting  that 
earlier  view  he  ga\'e  to  it  (in  the  "Liverpool  Lectures" 
of  1839)  probably  the  finest  literary  exposition  it  has  ever 
had,  in  an  argument  on  Moral  Evil. 

Those  who  are  old  enough  to  have  caught  the  first  tones 

of   theit    new  voice   will    remember  how   it  was  instantly 

recognized  as  the  voice  of  an  intellectual  leader,  and  with 

what   interest   every  step  has  been  watched  in  the  long 

1  Reprinted  in  "  Essays,  Reviews,  etc.,"  vol.  ii.,  pp.  371,  381. 


JAMES  MARTINEAU.  \6j 

and  brilliant  career  that  has  followed.  The  series  covers 
fifty-eight  years  of  successive  publications,  each  as  fresh,  as 
vigorous,  and  as  independent  as  the  first. 

Taking"  up  the  "  Rationale  "  at  this  day,  we  note  that  it 
accepts,  and  puts  forward  with  sharp  relief,  the  then  ac- 
cepted di\'ision-line  of  Christian  and  Deist :  whether  or 
not  Christianity  is  to  be  received  as  a  dispensation  of  mir- 
acle. In  the  school  which  Dr.  Martineau  represents,  this 
division-line  has  been  so  long  left  behind  as  to  have  been 
for  more  than  forty  years  lost  quite  out  of  sight:  this  was 
shown,  in  1850,  by  the  generous  and  cordial  recognition 
he  gave  to  Theodore  Parker  as  a  Christian  thinker.  With 
an  exaltation  of  the  person  of  Christ  very  rare  in  so  keen 
a  critic,  he  maintains  in  1853,  against  Professor  Newman, 
that  "  we  rest  our  Christianity  on  that  moral  perfection 
of  Jesus  which  he  arraigns";  while  in  1890,  denying  that 
Jesus  claimed  to  be  the  Messiah,  he  says,  simply,  that  "  in 
the  sphere  of  Divine  things,  the  requirement  is  that  he  be 
better"  than  we,  and  "  make  more  approach  to  the  supreme 
Perfection."^  During  a  residence  in  Germany  in  1848-49, 
he  became  a  master  in  the  fields  of  modern  philosophy 
and  criticism,  developing  a  marked  increase  in  breadth 
and  force.  A  series  of  critical  papers  of  extraordinary 
brilliancy  and  power — of  which  we  may  here  note  those 
on  the  Creed  and  the  Ethics  of  Christendom — have  cov- 
ered most  fields  of  modern  philosophical  inquiry.  His 
contributions  to  purely  religious  thought,  of  profoundest 
and  probably  most  lasting  value,  have  appeared  in  dis- 
courses entitled  "  Endeavours  after  the  Christian  Life  "  and 
"  Hours  of  Thought,"  which  in  their  quality  of  intellectual 
exposition  of  the  deeper  religious  experience  may  almost 
be  said  to  constitute  a  class  by  themselves.  What  is  rarest, 
even  in  so  extended  a  career,  is  to  ha\e  had  the  opportu- 

1  "  Essays,"  etc.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  55;    "  Seat  of  Autliority,"  p.  651. 


1 68  THE    UXITARIANS.  [Chap.  vii. 

nity,  when  already  far  past  eighty,  to  sum  up  its  ripest 
fruits  in  the  five  large  octavo  volumes  known  as  "  Types 
of  Ethical  Theory,"  "A  Study  of  Religion,"  and  "The 
Seat  of  Authority  in  Religion,"  together  with  the  four 
of  reprinted  "  Essays,  Reviews,  and  Addresses,"  which 
gather  up  the  most  significant  of  his  earlier  labors,  scat- 
tered through  half  a  lifetime. 

It  is  happily  too  soon  ^  to  survey  Dr.  Martineau's  life- 
work  as  a  whole,  or  to  pass  a  critical  judgment  upon  it. 
For  our  present  purpose,  it  is  enough  to  say  that  it  is  by 
far  the  most  rich  and  important  systematic  contribution 
ever  made  by  a  single  hand  to  the  literature  of  thought 
in  the  religious  body  with  which  he  has  been  associated. 
More,  too,  than  any  other  of  its  intellectual  leaders,  he 
has  been  impatient  of  the  limitations  that  seem  to  be 
thrown  about  it  by  a  name  taken  from  the  lists  of  contro- 
versial theology,  refusing  to  join  publicly  in  the  work  of 
a  "  Unitarian  "  organization,  or  to  contribute  a  paper  to  a 
"  Unitarian  "  review.  Rather,  he  would  recall  and  claim 
for  that  body  the  historic  title  "Presbyterian,"  carefully 
guarding  it  from  being  either  a  doctrinal  sect  on  the  one 
hand,  or  on  the  other  a  loose  aggregate  of  ill-trained  pop- 
ular religionists.  His  sympathies  are  widely  apart  from 
the  schemes  that  seek  for  it  a  greater  denominational 
vigor,  and,  possibly,  a  wider  field  of  real  service  and  influ- 
ence. Standing  aside  from  all  such  efforts,  he  has  been 
its  intellectual  guide  and  instructor  as  no  other  man  has 
been  or  could  be.  While  his  near  associates  have  been  men 
— like  John  James  Tayler  and  James  Drummond — of 
marked  learning  and  ability,  his  name  alone  adequately 
represents  the  course  the  higher  liberal  thought  has  taken, 
whether  by  what  he  has  adhered  to  or  by  what  he  has 
dissented  from. 

1  Written  in  the  siunnier  of  1893. 


THE   PRESKXT  SITUATlOy.  169 

In  what  form  English  Unitarianism  will  survive  changes 
so  radical,  whether  as  an  organized  body  or  as  an  intel- 
lectual force,  it  is  too  soon  to  forecast.  We  have  already, 
seen  those  features  of  it  which  have  perceptibly  influenced 
the  parallel  development  in  America.  In  respect  of  num- 
bers, it  does  not  greatly  vary  from  what  it  was  half  a  cent- 
ury ago,  counting,  in  1893,  344  congregations  and  356 
ministers.  Its  two  strong  points,  as  a  healthy  living  force, 
are  :  that  its  ablest  men  heartily  accept  the  results  of  scien- 
tific investigation  in  physics,  history,  or  criticism',  and  that 
the  body  of  it  is  pervaded  by  a  deep  and  powerful  sym- 
pathy with  what  is  best  in  the  political  and  social  aspira- 
tion of  the  day,  which  is  now  perhaps  the  most  important 
single  factor  in  British 'politics.  But  whether  these  two 
tend  together  as  a  source  of  strength  to  the  Unitarian 
body,  as  such,  is  open  to  question.  "  The  critical  move- 
ment," again  to  copy  from  the  writer  before  quoted,  "  is 
wholly  opposed  to  denominationalism  and  ecclesiastical 
zeal.  It  necessarily  fosters  Broad  Church  views  of  the 
inadequacy  of  all  formuL-e,  of  the  necessity  of  compromise 
in  worship,  and  the  rest.  Hence  the  militant  Unitarians 
do  not  care  at  all  for  historic  and  critical  inquiries,  and 
they  profoundly  mistrust  all  philosophy.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  ethical  sentiment,  being  precisely  what  links  us 
to  other  bodies  by  a  common  philanthropy,  is  also  un- 
favorable to  the  maintenance  of  narrow  lines  of  ecclesias- 
tical organization.  It  pleads  for  union  and  cooperation 
with  other  bodies  to  the  utmost  possible  extent ;  it  sinks 
all  diflerences  of  creed  or  church  life,  if  given  moral  ends 
can  be  secured."  Under  such  conditions  the  body  must 
survive,  if  at  all,  not  as  an  independent  force,  but  as  a 
single  battalion,  serving  under  its  special  discipline,  in  an 
immensely  greater  host.      But  this  is  prophecy,  not  history. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

ANTECEDENTS    IN    NEW    ENGLAND. 

What  is  called  the  Unitarian  movement  in  New  Eng- 
land belongs,  strictly,  to  the  last  century  and  a  half,  since 
the  Great  Awakening  of  1735.  But  to  explain  the  direction 
and  character  taken  by  this  current  of  religious  thought, 
it  is  necessary  to  look  back  for  a  moment  to  the  first 
founding  of  the  colonies,  and  to  note,  in  particular,  the 
non-dogmatic  forms  of  covenant  under  which  their  earlier 
churches  were  gathered.  Of  these  forms  it  will  be  suffi- 
cient here  to  copy  three :  those,  namely,  of  the  First 
Church  in  Plymouth  (1620),  the  First  Church  in  Salem 
(1629),  and  the  First  Church  in  Boston  (1630).  These 
three  churches  are  all  now  known  as  Unitarian,  and  each 
exists  at  this  day  under  its  original  covenant.  That  in 
Plymouth,  it  is  true,  was  revised  in  1676;  but  this  was 
done  without  changing  in  the  least  its  character  or  sub- 
stance. 

In  Bradford's  "  History  "  (p.  6)  j^  ,is  related  that  the 
Pilgrims  at  Plymouth  "  as  the  Lord's,  free  people  joyned 
them  selves  into  a  church  estate,  in  the  fellowship  of  tiic 
gospell,  to  walke  in  all  [God's]  wayes  made  known  or  to 
be  made  known  unto  them,  according  to  their  best  endeav- 
our, whatever  it  should  cost  them."  In  the  later  revision 
the  covenant  is  given  thus :  "  We  do  hereby  solemnly  and 
religiously,  as  in  his  most  holy  presence,  avoucli  the  Lord 
Jehovah,  the  only  true  God,  to  be  our  God  and  the  God 
of  ours;    and  do  promise  and  bind  ourselves  to  walk  in  all 

170 


EARLY  COVENANTS.  171 

our  ways  according  to  the  rule  of  the  gospel,  and  in  all 
sincere  conformity  to  his  holy  ordinances,  and  in  mutual 
love  and  watchfulness  over  one  another,  depending  wholly 
upon  the  Lord  our  God  to  enable  us  by  his  grace  here- 
unto." 

That  of  the  church  in  Salem  reads  :  "  We  covenant  with 
the  Lord  and  with  one  another,  and  doe  bynd  our  selves 
in  ye  presence  of  God,  to  walke  together  in  all  his  waies, 
according  as  he  is  pleased  to  reveale  himself  unto  us  in  his 
Blessed  word  of  truth."  In  the  additions  of  1636,  which 
follow,  the  "  waies  "  of  practical  piety  are  defined  at  some 
length,  without  the  insertion  of  a  single  point  of  contro- 
verted doctrine.^ 

The  First  Church  in  Boston  declares,  after  a  brief  pre- 
amble, as  follows :  "  We  ...  do  hereby  solemnly  and  re- 
ligiously promise  and  bind  ourselves  to  walk  in  all  our 
ways  according  to  the  rule  .of  the  gospel,  and  in  all  sincere 
conformity  to  [Christ's]  holy  ordinances,  and  in  mutual 
love  and  respect  each  to  other,  so  near  as  God  shall  give 
us  grace."  At  the  first  signing,  this  covenant  bore  only 
the  four  names  of  John  Winthrop,  Thomas  Dudley,  Isaac 
Johnson,  and  John  Wilson,  the  three  leading  laymen  of 
the  colony,  and  its  first  minister. 

These  earliest  documents  show,  in  the  first  place,  why 
it  was  that  New  England  Unitarianism  was  not  (like  the 
English)  a  secession,  but  an  offshoot  or  development,  from 
the  original  Congregational  order:  doctrinal  dissent,  or 
nonconformity,  was  never  called  for ;  and  secondly,  how 
all  agree  in  recognizing,  as  the  tribunal  of  last  appeal,  not 
church  authority,  or  any  form  of  creed,  but  the  direct 
guidance  of  the  Spirit  of  Truth  present  to  the  individual 

1  Ilurd's  "  History  of  Essex  County."  See  especially  the  discussion  as 
to  what  constituted  the  original  covenant,  and  whether  it  was  accompanied 
by  a  confession  of  belief,  as  presented  by  Rev.  K.  B.  Willson,  pp.  24-27. 


I  ']2  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  \  hi. 

mind,  which  is  ever  the  invitation  to  free  thought  and  the 
motive  of  doctrinal  advance.  These  points  are  the  rather 
to  be  noted,  because  "to  accept  the  covenant"  was  the 
formal  act  essential  to  full  citizenship,  as  well  as  to  mem- 
bership in  the  church.  The  covenant,  accordingly,  and 
not  a  point  of  speculative  doctrine,  furnished  the  question 
at  issue  in  the  sharp  discussion — that  on  the  "  Half-way 
Covenant  " — which  opened  the  second  era  of  colonial  life 
in  1662.^  This  was  the  first  intrusion  of  the  modern  secu- 
lar spirit  into  the  conduct  of  the  colonial  church,  and  was 
compelled  upon  it  by  the  political  circumstances  of  the 
Restoration. 

We  understand,  of  course,  that  there  w^as  a  body  of 
doctrine  generally  if  not  universally  received  among  the 
colonial  churches.  This,  indeed,  has  made  the  standard 
of  a  very  rigid  orthodoxy,  by  which  all  departures  from  it 
have  been  judged,  quite  down  to  our  own  day.  Colonial 
laws  to  restrain  "  heresy,"  passed  in  1646  and  in  i6q7, 
were  first  formally  abolished  by  the  Bill  of  Rights  in  the 
Massachusetts  Constitution  of  1780.  The  exaggerated 
doctrine  of  the  Free  Spirit,  proclaimed  by  Ann  Hutchin- 
son in  1634,  held  the  colony  distracted  till  her  cruel  expul- 
sion two  years  later.  About  1650  William  Pynchon  pub- 
lished "  The  Meritorious  Price  of  Man's  Redemption,"  a 
treatise  "  vindicating  the  suff"erings  and  sacrifice  of  Christ 
from  that  most  dangerous  Scriptureless  tenent,  that  is  held 
forth   by   Mr.    Norton,   of  New   England,   in   his  book   of 

1  The  essential  provision  of  the  "  Half-way  Covenant"  was  that  children 
of  persons  baptized,  though  unregenerate,  may  be  baptized,  "  their  parents 
owning  the  covenant."  Its  terms  are  stated  in  "  The  Spirit  of  the  Pilgrims  " 
to  be  these:  (i)  the  duty  of  all  baptized  persons  "to  own  the  covenant," 
whether  or  not  formally  admitted  to  the  church  ;  (2)  in  case  of  their  hesitation 
or  indifference,  the  church  should  summon  them  to  do  it ;  (3)  if  they  still 
neglect,  they  are  to  receive  the  formal  censure  of  the  church ;  (4)  if  they  are 
of  sober  and  reputable  life,  though  not  church-members,  their  children  may 
be  baptized.   . 


CONFESSION  OF  IGSO.  I  73 

'  Christ's  Sufferings,'  afifirming  that  he  suffered  the  es- 
sentiartorments  of  hell  and  the  second  death  from  God's 
immediate  vindicative  wrath";  asserting,  on  tiie  contrary 
(p.  309),  that  his  death  was  a  priestly  act,  in  which  he 
offered  up  his  own  life  as  ransom  for  the  guilty,  l^'or  this 
advance  upon  the  somber  theology  of  our  fathers,  the  book 
was  burned,  and  its  author  was  punished  by  a  fine  of  a 
hundred  pounds. 

The  constitution  and  polity  of  the  colonial  churches  had 
been  carefully  defined  in  the"  Cambridge  Platform  "of  1648, 
as  a  measure  of  defense  against  the  Presbyterian  party 
hitherto  dominant  in  the  Long  Parliament.  Their  doc-, 
trinal  standard  was  of  far  later  date  ;  it  was  not  formally! 
announced  till  1680.  In  that  year  a  synod  of  elders  and 
delegates,  representing  five  New  England  colonies,  was  1 
held  in  Boston,  which  drafted  a  "  Confession  of  Faith"  in 
thirty- two  chapters,  copied  in  substance  from  tliat  of  the  I 
Westminster  Assembly,  as  abridged  by  the  Independents 
in  the  "Savoy  Confession"  of  1658.^  This  declaration 
could  not,  however,  be  imposed  as  a  creed  upon  the 
churches,  which  simply  adopted  such  portions  of  it  as  they 
thought  lit  into  their  several  covenants.  The  theory  of 
independency  might  not  be  denied.  As  a  consequence  of 
the  restoration  of  Charles  II.,  the  colonies  had  been  forced 
to  admit  to  equal  citizenship,  and  hence  as  qualified  for 
cliurch  communion,  "  all  persons  orthodox  in  their  opin- 
ions and  not  vitious  in  their  lives."  From  this  came  the 
lax  terms  of  membership,  in  the  "  Half-way  Covenant  "of 
1662,  and  opening  of  church  doors  to  the  un regenerate. 
From  this,  again,  arose  the  compromising  theory  that  the 
TvOrd's  Sup[)er  is  of  itself  a  "  converting  ordinance,"  and 
that   hence    "  profane   persons    ought    to   be    admitted   to 

1  Given  in  Mather's  "  Magnalia,"  vol.  ii.,  pp.  157-178.     Sec  "  Tiie  Pan- 
oplist,"  vol.  iii.,  p.   13. 


1 74  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  viii. 

partake  of  it."  This  theory  was  vigorously  attacked  by 
Increase  Mather,  in  a  small  volume  directed  against  Solo- 
mon Stoddard;  and  again  at  a  .synod  in  1689,  where  he 
remonstrated  against  "  men  of  known  unregeneracy  shar- 
ing in  the  tremendous  mysteries  "  of  that  sacramental  act. 

The  effect  most  dreaded  at  this  period  would  appear  to 
have  been  less  the  spread  'of  doctrinal  heresy  than  the 
secularizing  of  church  life.  "  Doth  not  a  careless,  remiss, 
flat,  dry,  cold,  dead  frame  of  .spirit  grow  upon  us  secretly, 
strongly,  prodigiously  ?  "  so  asks,  sadly,  a  minister  of  the 
elder  time,  in  1669.  Royal  authority  was  unfriendly  to 
the  old  ecclesiastical  rule.  Conditions  of  social  life  were 
altered  from  the  former  rude  simplicity.  Natural  leaders 
in  the  young  State — jurists,  publicists,  or  men  of  letters — 
cared  more  for  political  rights  than  for  church  theology. 
Against  this  danger — illustrated  at  all  points  in  the 
remarkable  career  of  John  Wise,  "  Father  of  American 
democracy"  (1652-1725) — the  barrier  of  a  stricter  eccle- 
siasticism  was  set  up.  In  1 700  the  plan  of  a  "  national  \ 
church  "  was  urged,  to  confirm  the  shaken  authority.  In 
1 705  a  system  of  "  associations ' '  and  "  standing  councils ' '  was 
adopted.  In  1708  the  "  Saybrook  Platform"  established 
in  Connecticut  a  method  of  "  Consociation,"  or  local  pres- 
bytery, which  never  got  footing  beyond  the  boundaries  of 
that  province.  An  ecclesiastical  machinery  of  some  little 
dignity  and  strength  was  thus  constructed,  which  held  in 
moderate  check  the  laxness  of  Independency,  and  was  in 
a  good  number  of  cases  efTective  in  setting  bounds  to  the) 
Boston  liberal  theology  of  a  later  day. 

Meanwhile,  the  change  of  the  colonial  charter  in  1692 
had  brought  in,  along  with  royal  governors  and  new  dis- 
tinctions of  rank,  increased  circulation  of  English  books. 
The  discussions  of  Sherlock,  South,  Whiston,  Clarke,  and 
others  came  to  be  widely  known.     Among  the  rest,  writ- 


uxrr.tKi.ixs  OF  iifE  ekjuteeatii  cExrrRY.    175 

ings  of  Thomas  Emlyn,  the  amiable  witness  and  sufferer 
of  that  clay  for  the  Unitarian  faith,  had  a  large  currency 
and  a  special  influence.  Dr.  Sprague,  in  his  "  Annals  of 
the  American  Pulpit,"  records  the  lives  of  forty-nine 
ministers  of  known  Unitarian  belief  settled  in  Congrega- 
tional churches  during  the  eighteenth  century.  The  list 
begins  with  the  seventy  years'  pastorate  (1717-87)  of  the 
excellent  and  eccentric  Dr.  Ebenezer  Gay,  of  Hingham, 
who  has  been  called  "  the  Father  of  American  Unita- 
rianism " — a  graduate  at  eighteen  of  Harvard  College, 
who  received  its  doctor's  degree  at  eighty-nine,  and  died 
in  his  ninety-second  year ;  and  includes  the  name  of 
James  Freeman,  the  terms  of  whose  settlement  at  King's 
Chapel,  in  1785,  virtually  transferred  that  noble  foundation 
from  the  Epi'scopal  to  the  Congregational  body.  To  these 
we  should  add  the  name  of  Lemuel  Briant,  minister  of 
Braintree  from  1747  to  1752,  citing  the  evidence  of  the 
elder  President  Adams,  who,  "discussing  in  1815  the 
principles  of  the  new  departure,  found  in  them  nothing 
that  was  not  familiarly  known  to  him,  and  bore  testimony 
to  the  fact  that  sixty- five  years  before,  Lemuel  Briant  \yas 
a  Unitarian."  ^  It  may  be  noted,  however,  that  the  con- 
troversy at  that  day  turned  chiefly  on  the  Atonement  and 
the  conditions  of  the  moral  life,  and  so  was  known  as 
"  Arminian,"  not  specially  as  antitrinitarian. 

These  evidences  of  a  great  latitude  of  opinion,  tolerated 
and  allowed  for  without  any  break  in  the  Congregational 
order,  will  be  easily  understood  from  what  has  been  said 
of  the  character  of  the  church  covenants.  It  had  much  to 
do,  besides,  with  the  deepening  interest  in  political  affairs, 
as  we  approach  the  period  of  open  conflict  with  the  mother- 
country.      Indeed,  it  might  almost  be  said   that  every  man 

1  "Three  Episodes  in  the  History  of  Massachusetts,"  by  Charles  F. 
Adams,  p.  643. 


176  THE    UXITAKIAXS.  [Chai-.  viii. 

of  very  wide  and  strong  influence  in  public  life  (with  the 
possible  exception  of  Samuel  Adams,  "last  of  the  Puri- 
tans")— from  Benjamin  Franklin,  the  friend  of  Lindsey 
and  Priestley,  to  Thomas  Jefferson,  whom  his  biographer 
'  Randall  calls  a  Unitarian  in  belief — was  a  confirmed  disbe- 
liever in  the  Puritan  theology  ;  while,  unconscious  of  any 
jealousy,  the  Congregational  ministry  had  its  full  share  in 
rousing  and  guiding  the  patriot  temper  of  the  day. 

Naturally,  the  growing  laxity  of  opinion  did  not  come 
to  pass  without  sharp  remonstrance  from  the  more  zealous 
preachers  of  the  elder  creed. ^  Thus  we  hear,  in  1719,  of 
"an  inclination  to  the  abominable  errors  of  Arius."  Cot- 
ton Mather's  convention  sermon  in  1722  complains  that 
men  "  do  not  preach  much  about  the  person  of  Christ,  after 
the  manner,"  he  remarks,  "  of  Church-of-England  men  "  ; 
while  in  1726  William  Williams,  in  less  polemic  mood, 
would  subordinate  controversy  "  to  set  forth  the  glory  of 
Christ,  .  .  .  the  main  and  essential  part  of  our  w^ork." 
Jonathan  Edwards,  at  Northampton  in  1734,  is  uneasy  at 
symptoms  of  "  Arminianism,"  which  he  thinks  to  betoken 
a  cold  and  neutral  temper  in  the  religious  life.  And  the 
next  year,  under  his  powerful  impulse,  occurs  the  wonder- 
ful phenomenon  of  "  the  Great  Awakening,"  with  extrava- 
gance of  revivals  that  followed,  and  the  "  strange  transports 
of  mechanical  devotions,"  which  are  generally  held,  by  the 
reaction  they  invited,  to  have  led  the  way  to  the  liberal 
theology  that  followed. 

How  rapid  this  counter-movement  was,  we  find  evidence 
in  the  three  vi.sits  of  George  Whitefield  to  Boston,  in  1740, 
in  1744,  and  in  1754.  In  the  first,  fresh  as  he  was  from 
his  enthusiasm  in  the  great  work  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  he 

1  Some  of  the  details  which  follow  are  taken  from  an  extended  article  by 
Rev.  E.  H.  Gillett,  D.D.  (200  pages  of  double  columns)  in  the  "  Historical 
Magazine"  for  April,  1871. 


IIJUTKFIKLD  AND    ClIAUNCY ;    THE  MAYIIEIVS.    IJ-J 

seemed  to  carry  all  before  him,  and  gave  his  farewell  dis- 
course on  Boston  Common  to  a  crowd  of  twenty  thousand 
eager  listeners.  In  the  second,  the  scene  is  already 
changed.  Edwards's  *'  Thoughts  "  and  Chauncy's  "  Sea- 
sonable Thoughts"  on  the  great  revival  have  intervened. 
Criticism  is  in  the  ascendant.  A  demand  for  "  discipline  " 
has  displaced  the  heated  enthusiasm.  The  reaction  has 
now  set  in,  which  six  years  later  drove  Edwards  from  his 
home  in  Northampton  to  his  Stockbridge  exile  among  the 
Indians.  At  his  third  visit,  in  1754,  Whitefield  finds  no 
response  in  Boston.  A  new  gospel  of  reason  has  been  for 
eight  years  installed  in  the  West  Church  pulpit  by  May- 
hew,  the  boldest  preacher  of  his  day.  The  spirit  of  the 
time  is  "hostility  to  creeds."  The  cry  of  "  Arminian," 
"  Socinian,"  "  Antinomian,"  has  been  heard  without  alarm. 
The  writings  of  Thomas  Emlyn  are  diligently  studied. 
We  have  in  full  \-iew  that  "  weakness  of  the  pulpit  "  (with 
the  notable  exception  of  Mayhew)  which  has  been  recorded 
as  one  symptom  of  the  coming  political  revolution.  The 
New  England  clergy,  as  Whitefield  in  his  wrath  had  can- 
didly said  of  them,  were  "  dumb  dogs,  half  devils  and  half 
beasts,  unconverted,  spiritually  blind,  and  leading  their 
people  to  hell !  " 

Charles  Chauncy,  minister  of  the  First  Church  in  Boston 
for  sixty  years,  till  his  death,  in  1787 — a  scholar,  an  ardent 
patriot,  a  political  reformer,  and  a  ready  controversialist — 
was  eminently  the  intellectual  leader  at  this  period  in  the 
new  advance  towards  a  rational  theology.  But  its  most 
effective  popular  champion  was  Jonathan  Mayhew,  pastor 
of  the  West  Church  from  1747  till  his  early  death,  in  1766. 
He  was  born  in  i  720,  a  child  of  brave  descent.  His  an- 
cestors for  four  generations  had  been  rulers,  teachers,  and 
civilizers  among  the  Indians.  The  first,  Thomas  Mayhew 
(i 592-1682),  a  citizen  of  Watertown,  Mass.,  had  received 


•178  THE    UXITARIAXS.  [Chap.  vni. 

a  grant  of  the  island  of  Martha's  Vineyard,  where  he 
planted  a  colony  at  Edgarton,  at  the  age  of  fifty- five,  tak- 
ing with  him  his  son  Thomas,  a  zealous  preacher,  as  mis- 
sionary among  the  native  tribes.  Ten  years  later,  at  the 
age  of  thirty-six,  this  son — a  beloved  apostle,  familiar  with 
the  dialects  of  his  hearers — was  lost  at  sea,  while  on  his 
way  to  plead  their  spiritual  needs  in  London ;  and  a  few 
years  later  the  father,  already  revered  by  the  savages  as  a 
just  magistrate  and  true  friend,  devoted  himself  at  se\'enty 
to  carrying  on  his  son's  work  as  preacher  of  the  gospel, 
sometimes  walking  as  much  as  twenty  miles  in  a  day  to 
fulfill  his  service.  Though  twenty-fold  the  number  of  the 
whites  upon  the  island,  the  Indians  of  his  charge  could 
never  be  drawn  to  take  part  in  the  somber  horror  of  King 
Philip's  War;  and  the  old  man  died  in  peace,  lacking  six 
days  only  of  ninety  years.  The  good  work  was  continued 
by  his  grandson  John,  and  then  by  Experience,  father  of 
the  more  eloquent  and  famous  Jonathan. 

Coming  fresh  from  such  a  field,  the  younger  Mayhew 
brought  with  him  a  spirit  of  almost  haughty  independence, 
which  was  quickly  manifest.  From  the  outset  he  pro- 
fessed the  right  and  duty  of  private  judgment.  At  his 
settlement  in  Boston  the  more  cautious  of  the  clergy  held 
aloof,  and  he  was  installed  by  a  council  gathered  from 
country  parishes.  He  would  not  follow  the  customary 
practice  of  seeking  membership  in  the  Boston  Association 
of  Ministers,  and  never  took  part  in  the  Thursday  Lecture, 
but  established  a  more  attractive  weekly  series  of  his  own. 
It  is  significant  that  his  doctor's  degree  came  to  him  from 
Aberdeen.  He  was,  it  is  said,  "  the  first  clergyman  in 
New  England  who  expressly  and  openly  opposed  the 
school  doctrine  of  the  Trinity."  This  doctrine  he  did  not 
scruple  even  to  ridicule,  by  applying  the  phrases  of  the 
creed   to  an   imaginary   deification    of   the   Virgin   Mary. 


JONATIIAX  MAYllKW.  I  79 

Already  when  a  student  at  college  he  had  been  revolted 
by  the  cxtraxaganccs  of  a  re\ival.  Under  the  influence 
(it  is  said)  of  Dr.  Gay,  of  Hingham,  he  had  then  chosen 
the  cooler  way  of  reason.  Thus  he  rejected  the  doctrine 
of  "  irresistible  grace";  he  doubted  the  entire  creed  of 
orthinloxy  ;  he  held  the  doctrine  of  freewill,  taking  the 
Arniinian  part  in  the  burning  controv'ersy  of  the  day. 
"  Creed-making  "  he  held  in  scorn.  A  vicarious  atone- 
ment and  an  imputed  righteousness  he  vehemently  denied. 
Persecution  for  opinion's  sake  he  hated.  "A  burning 
fagot,"  he  said,  "  has  no  tendency  to  illuminate  the  under- 
standing;" in  the  popular  way  of  revivals  "  men  are  con- 
verted— only  out  of  their  own  wits  ;  ...  to  attempt  to 
dragoon  men  into  sound  orthodox  Christians  is  as  unnat- 
ural as  to  attempt  to  dragoon  them  into  good  poets, 
physicians,  or  mathematicians,"  Christianity,  according 
to  him,  is  not  a  scheme  of  salvation,  to  be  defined  by 
dogma,  but  "  the  art  of  li\'ing  virtuously  and  piously." 

These  phrases  give  hint  of  a  temper  sometimes  hasty 
and  disdainful,  but  in  the  main  nobly  independent.  It  is 
no  wonder  that  his  gospel  of  freedom  soon  ran  out  in  the 
line  of  political  rights  and  duties,  or  that  he  became  the 
near  friend  and  adviser  of  such  ardent  patriots  as  Samuel 
Adams,  James  Otis,  and  other  pre-revolutionary  leaders. 
Zeal  for  theological  controversy  gave  way,  step  by  step, 
before  interest  in  public  events.  Among  the  topics  of  dis- 
course which  he  carried  into  the  pulpit  are  such  as  these : 
the  death  and  character  of  Frederick,  Prince  of  Wales  ;  the 
anniversary  of  the  beheading  of  Charles  I.,  which  he  takes 
as  occasion  for  a  plea  against  ecclesiastical  apologies  for 
despotism  ;  the  taking  of  Quebec  ;  the  accession  of  George 
HI.  The  discussion  that  best  shows  his  \-igor  of  attack 
and  retort  was  called  out  by  an  effort  made  by  certain 
Episcopalian  ministers  to  get  P.piscopacy  recognized  as  an 


l80  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  viii. 

established  religion  in  the  colonies.  This  had  led  to  the 
great  abuse  (as  he  charged  it)  of  drawing  upon  missionary- 
funds  to  maintain  clergymen  of  that  persuasion  in  the 
larger  towns,  already  well  provided  with  Christian  teachers, 
where  they  found  no  hearing,  instead  of  sending  them  to 
remoter  settlements,  where  they  were  really  wanted.  The 
most  pungent  passage  in  his  attack  is  a  bit  of  sarcasm, 
almost  fierce,  on  the  religious  and  political  antecedents  of 
Seeker,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  who  had  incautiously 
meddled  in  the  debate.  A  personal  controversy  with  Mr. 
Clea\'eland,  of  Ipswich,  in  which  he  resents  the  charge  of 
a  Restorationist  heresy  in  the  phrase  that  punishment  may 
be  "  for  the  good  of  the  offender,"  is  less  creditable  to  his 
judgment  or  temper.  Dying  at  the  age  of  forty-six,  a 
little  before  the  crisis  of  the  political  revolution  which  his 
impetuous  .spirit  hailed  in  advance,  he  left  a  fame  far  wider 
and  more  enduring  than  any  of  his  associates. 

Mayhew's  successor  in  the  West  Church,  Simeon  How- 
ard (i  767— 1804),  continued  the  line  of  dissent  from  the 
accepted  creed,  being  esteemed  an  Arian.  He  was  a  man 
of  modest,  serious,  and  even  temper,  in  character  generous 
and  upright,  highly  esteemed  for  scholarship,  and  as  a 
pastor  greatly  loved.  In  his  time  that  church  was  nearly 
wrecked  by  the  storm  of  the  Revolution.  While  he  took 
refuge  in  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia,  "  the  house  he  preached 
in  was  turned  into  a  barrack,  and  his  congregation  dis- 
persed in  every  direction."  Those  were  not  days  of 
theological  interest  or  advance.  "  The  divinity  of  Christ,' 
complained  Andrew  Croswell,  speaking  at  that  time,  "  is 
an  antiquated  doctrine,  very  unfashionable  and  unmodish." 
"  Every  Christian,"  responded  Tucker  of  Newbury,  in 
I  768,  "  has  and  must  have  a  right  to  judge  for  himself  of 
the  true  sense  and  meaning  of  all  gospel  truths."  Presi- 
dent  Locke,    of    Harvard   College,   insisted    in    1772    that 


LIBERALS  IN  SALEM.  l8l 

"  foreign  errors  are  to  be  met  by  argument  alone,  not  by 
crowding  down  creeds  and  confessions  upon  pain  of  eternal 
punishment."  The  cHmax  of  this  period  of  indifferentism 
was  reached  in  the  presidency  of  Joseph  Willard  (i  781- 
1804),  an  Arminian  in  creed,  who  corresponded  with 
friends  of  Voltaire  in  France  as  well  as  Priestley  and  Price 
in  England,  in  whose  time  it  was  a  common  saying  that 
"  the  Boston  ministers  have  agreed  to  differ."  At  the 
end  of  the  century  we  are  told  :  "  It  is  confidently  believed 
that  there  was  not  a  strict  trinitarian  clergyman  of  the 
Congregational  order  in  Boston." 

Nor  was  this  temper  of  mind  confined  to  professed 
theologians.  Among  the  anecdotes  of  the  revolutionary 
period,  it  is  told  that  Timothy  Pickering,  of  Salem, — emi- 
nent alike  as  a  soldier,  a  jurist,  a  statesman,  and  in  later 
years  as  a  bitter  Federalist  partisan, — once  heard  Ikiron 
Steuben  say,  while  campaigning  on  the  Hudson,  that  he 
"  would  as  soon  believe  the  doctrine  of  the  trinity  "  as 
some  tale  that  had  just  been  told  him.  This  set  the  seri- 
ous young  adjutant  to  thinking,  and  he  became  one  of  the 
lay  promoters  of  a  very  notable  theological  movement  in 
his  native  town.^ 

The  liberal  mo\-ement  in  Salem  is  associated  chiefl\' 
with  three  very  eminent  names  among  its  ministers.  Of 
Thomas  Barnard,  of  the  North  Church  (i  773-1812),  it  is 
said  that  he  was  a  man  of  strong  character  and  remark- 
able personal  influence.  This  latter  quality  was  shown  in 
his  effccti\-e  mediation,  in  1775,  between  a  British  officer 
and  young  Timothy  Pickering,  who,  with  his  militia  guard, 
claimed  txjid  kept  possession  of  certain  weapons  which  the 
authorities  sought  to  detain.  But  this  great  personal  in- 
fluence was  neutral  as  to  those  matters  of  dispute  that 

1   For  an  interesting  sketch  of  tin's  niovenient  see  two  papers  .at  the  chise 
of  a  volume  entitled  "  Social  Equilihriuni,"  etc.,  by  Rev.  George  Ijiitciielor. 


1 82  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Cuap.  viii. 

might  seem  more  properly  within  his  province.  "  Dr. 
Barnard,"  said  an  unsatisfied  parishioner  to  him  one  day, 
"  I  never  heard  you  preach  a  sermon  on  the  trinity." 
"  No,"  was  the  instant  reply,  "  and  you  never  will."  His 
convention  sermon  of  1793  went  to  prove  that  "faith 
in  Christ  and  obedience  to  his  laws  "  may  well  be  con- 
sistent with  honest  difference  as  to  the  grounds  of  belief 
in  him. 

The  name  of  John  Prince,  of  the  First  Church  (1779- 
1836),  was  more  familiar,  through  his  long  ministr}'  of 
fifty-seven  years,  to  men  of  a  younger  generation.  He 
was  a  man  of  scientific  turn  of  mind,  of  gentle  and  kindly 
temper,  of  easy  liberality  in  belief  and  practice.  Thus  he 
was  interested  in  the  reading  anci  circulating  of  English 
Unitarian  books,  and — what  was  a  rare  thing  to  do  among 
the  Congregational  clergy  of  that  day — he  opened  his  pul- 
pit in  1787  to  John  Murray,  the  pioneer  of  Universalism 
in  America.  Through  this  mild  easiness  of  disposition  he 
was  one  of  those  who,  when  controversy  comes,  are  readily 
suspected  of  evasion  or  concealment. 

Quite  the  most  remarkable  and  most  independent  of  the 
three  "  liberal  "  Salem  ministers  was  William  Bentley,  of 
the  East  Church  (i  783-1819),  who  was  called  to  his  place 
from  a  tutorship  of  mathematics  in  Harvard  College.  He 
was  a  man  brusquely  independent,  discarding  both  the  creed 
and  the  great  wig  "which  was  its  symbol."  He  discon- 
tinued the  Friday's  "preparatory  lecture,"  then  custom- 
ary before  communion  Sunday.  He  sympathized  frankly 
with  the  Engli.sh  Unitarians,  holding  Priestley's  tracts  to  be 
a  sufiicient  vindication  of  their  doctrine.  Yet  he  sharply 
opposed  divisions  in  the  Congregational  body,  and  scorn- 
fully refused  to  take  part  in  the  ordaining  of  John  Mur- 
ray, as  "an  illiterate  foreigner  without  credentials."  He 
was  a  most  industrious  and  faithful  preacher,  writing  his 


WILLIAM  BENTLEY.  1 83 

two  sermons  a  week,  without  break,  for  six-and-thirty 
years.  He  was  among  the  first  to  accept  the  later  Uni- 
tarian expositions  of  the  Logos,  and  was  earlier  than 
Channing-  to  oppose  the  orthodox  dogma  of  native  de- 
pravity in  human  nature.  He  was  far  in  ad\'ance  of  his 
day  in  accepting  the  spirit  of  modern  democracy,  and  did 
not  at  all  shun  to  be  called  by  such  names  of  contumely 
as  "  Jacobin,"  "  Democrat,"  or  "  Jeffersonian  infidel."  An 
anecdote  shows  his  daring,  popular,  and  ready  temper. 
During  the  War  of  1812  word  was  brought  to  him  in  the 
pulpit  one  Sunday  morning  that  the  frigate  "  Constitu- 
tion "  had  taken  refuge  at  Marblehead,  four  miles  away, 
threatened  by  British  cruisers.  Instantly  dismissing  the 
congregation,  he  headed  a  party  of  relief,  riding  (says  one 
account)  on  a  gun-carriage.  Whether  or  not  deterred  by 
the  signs  of  resistance,  the  cruisers  sailed  away ;  upon 
which,  returning  as  promptly  as  he  had  gone,  he  thrilled 
his  audience  with  an  impromptu  patriotic  discourse  on  the 
text,  "There  go  the  ships!"  Dr.  Bentley  was,  further- 
more, master  of  learning  extremely  rare  in  his  day.  He 
was  said  to  be  "  expert  in  at  least  twenty-one  languages," 
and  such  an  adept  in  calligraphy  that  manuscript  copies 
made  by  him,  in  Greek,  Hebrew,  and  Arabic,  are  models 
of  that  elegant  art.  Thus  distinguished  as  a  scholar,  he 
yet  declined  the  presidency  of  a  college  in  Vermont,  choos- 
ing the  homelier  ta.sks  of  his  parish  ministry.  A  man  of 
warm  temperament,  an  eager  partisan  of  the  most  popu- 
lar political  creed,  a  fluent  newspaper  correspondent,  a 
devoted  pastor  and  friend,  his  last  act  was  to  visit  a  sick 
parishioner  on  a  bitter  December  day ;  and  then,  return- 
ing to  his  fireside,  he  dropped  dead  as  he  opened  his  lips 
to  give  some  direction  to  his  attendant. 

A  still  more  characteristic  influence  working  in  Salem  to 
the  same  general  effect  was  that  of  merchants  and  ship- 


1 84  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  viii. 

masters,  especially  those  .engaged  in  the  East  India  trade. 
Commerce,  in  the  years  following  the  Revolutionary  War, 
was  the  most  potent  element  in  the  social  life  of  Salem. 
In  particular,  commerce  in  the  Indian  Ocean  here  first 
came  to  be  of  great  magnitude  and  importance,  and  gave 
to  this  town  a  rank  quite  out  of  proportion  to  its  size  or 
population.  It  was  on  a  voyage  to  the  Isle  of  Bourbon, 
in  1 794,  that  Nathaniel  Bowditch  worked  out  the  com- 
putations which  gave  to  his  "Practical  Navigator"  its 
supreme  authority  among  books  of  its  class.  Professor 
Benjamin  Peirce,  ranked  as  the  profoundest  genius  among 
American  mathematicians,  was  grandson  of  a  Salem  ship- 
master. The  most  eminent  local  names  were  those  dis- 
tinguished in  that  line  of  commercial  adventure ;  and  of 
these,  almost  all  the  more  prominent — twenty,  it  is  said, 
out  of  twenty-four — were  to  be  found  in  the  Unitarian 
congregations.  Men  of  their  order  of  intelligence  were 
quick  to  be  impressed  by  contact  with  old-world  civiliza- 
tions and  alien  faiths.  The  supercargo  of  the  first  ship 
that  traded  in  those  waters  is  related  to  have  volunteered 
at  home  a  defense  of  Mohammedanism.  Others  felt  in 
like  manner  the  mental  stimulus  of  foreign  travel  and  ad- 
venture, so  that  the  brighter  intelligence  of  New  England 
fast  lost  its  provincial  quality,  along  with  whatever  was 
narrow  in  its  Puritan  tradition.  It  is  a  citizen  of  Salem, 
Robert  Rantoul,  whom  we  find  at  a  later  day  in  corre- 
spondence with  Rammohun  Roy,  touching  the  points  of 
kinship  between  Oriental  and  Western  faiths.  Thus  "  the 
first  liberalizing  influence  upon  the  old  Puritan  theology 
was  felt  in  that  community  through  its  navigators,  even 
more  than  through  its  critics  and  theologians.  As  soon 
as  they  came  into  those  warmer  latitudes,  their  crust  of 
prejudice  melted  and  cracked  from  them  like  films  of  ice; 
and  in  place  of  the  narrow  tradition  they  carried  out  with 


KING'S   CHAPEL,  BOSTON.  185 

them  they  brought  home  the  germs  of  a  broad  rehgion  of 
humanity."  - 

The  event  of  chief  note  in  the  half-century  we  havei 
now  traced  was  that  act  of  the  proprietors  of  King's 
Chapel,  in  Boston,  by  which  (in  the  language  of  its  min- 
ister, Dr.  Greenwood)  "  the  first  Episcopal  Church  in  New 
England  became  the  first  Unitarian  Church  in  America." 
On  the  19th  of  June,  1785,  it  was  voted,  twenty  against 
seven,  to  strike  out  from  the  order  of  service  whatever 
teaches  or  implies  the  doctrine  of  the  trinity.  This  step 
was  prepared  for  by  a  course  of  discussions  on  the  true 
interpretation  of  Christian  doctrine,  conducted  by  James 
"Freeman,  who  for  about  two  years  had  been  the  "  reader  " 
of  that  church,  and  who  two  years  later  was  formally  in- 
stalled as  its  pastor  by  the  Vestry,  acting  under  the  general 
statutes  of  Massachusetts,  the  affiliated  churches  refusing 
their  assent  or  fellowship.  The  change  was  further  favored 
by  the  temper  developed  in  the  revolutionary  struggle,  when 
some  of  the  royalist  proprietors  went  into  exile,  and  their 
places  were  filled  by  younger  men.  Mr.  Freeman  had 
had  scruples  on  the  point  of  lay  ordination  ;  but,  hearing 
an  English  visitor — Rev.  Mr.  Hazlitt,  father  of  the  essay- 
ist— assert  its  validity,  he  replied,  "  I  wish  you  could  prove 
that,  sir,"  and  so  entered  into  the  argument,  in  which  he 
was  easily  convinced.  He  soon  became  an  active  propa- 
gandist of  Unitarian  doctrine.  He  published  a  "  Scripture 
Confutation  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles";  distributed  the 
writings  of  English  Unitarians,  including  the  gift  of  Priest- 
ley's works  to  Harvard  College;  and,  without  being  an 
eager  controversialist,  was  held  in  liigh  esteem  as  a  pio- 
neer among  the  early  Unitarian  leaders,  till  his  death,  in 
1835,  at  the  age  of  seventy-six. 

For  some   twenty  years   following  the   step   taken   at 
King's  Chapel,  the  movement  as  it  widens  out  is  most 


1 86  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Ciiap.  viii. 

easily  to  be  traced  in  a  series  of  personal  names  or  inci- 
dents. In  1 786  Aaron  Bancroft,  father  of  the  historian, 
was  settled  in  Worcester,  where  from  that  date  till  his 
death,  in  1839,  he  was  widely  known  as  a  leader  in  the 
new  theology,  exhibiting  "  uniform  prudence  in  counsel 
and  action,  a  warm  heart  and  courteous  manners,  and  de- 
voted fidelity  in  all  relations  of  public  and  private  life." 
A  congregation  in  Portland,  Me.,  seeking  in  1792  to  re- 
form its  order  of  worship,  under  the  direction  of  its  min- 
ister, Mr.  Oxnard,  found  itself  drawn  into  alliance  with  the 
liberal  movement ;  and  this  act  was  followed,  about  the 
same  time,  in  the  important  town  of  Saco.  In  1794  simi- 
lar action  was  taken  in  Plymouth  and  in  Barnstable.  Two' 
years  later  are  found  scattered  churches  of  known  Unita- 
rian affinities  in  the  States  of  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island, 
New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  and  Pennsylvania.^  Priestley, 
it  is  said,  was  warmly  urged,  in  1 794,  to  settle  as  a  Unita- 
rian preacher  in  both  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  but 
preferred  a  retired  life  at  Northumberland.  Freeman,  in 
1789,  speaks  of  "many  churches  in  which  the  worship  is 
strictly  Unitarian";  and  we  hear  at  the  same  date  of  an 
atmosphere  of  doubt  ("  not  concealed  disbelief")  touching 
the  disputed  points  of  the  popular  theology.  "  Rejection 
of  the  trinity  "  would  seem  to  be  the  one  point  of  agree- 
ment among  the  Boston  ministers ;  and  Dr.  Joseph  Buck- 
minster,  of  Portsmouth,  laments  in  1799  a  tendency  that 
has  already  the  promise  of  its  most  brilliant  representative 
in  his  greatly  gifted  son,  who  at  fifteen  has  rejected  the 
doctrine  of  native  depravity,  and- doubts  the  trinity. 

Thus  in  the  year    1800  it   comes   to   pass   that,   while 

scarce  one  Congregational   preacher  can  fairly  be  called 

a  trinitarian,   there   is   as  yet   "no   line  of  demarkation." 

Eckley   is    rated    as   "  orthodox,"   PLliot   and    Howard   as 

1  Belshaiu's  "  Life  of  Lindsey  "  (1812). 


HENRY   WAKE  AT  HARVARD    COLLEGE.  1 87 

"  Arian,"  Emerson  as  "  Unitarian,"  Kirkland  as  simply 
"  liberal."  Harvard  College,  founded  to  be  the  nursery 
of  Puritan  theology,  is  quite  neutral,  e\'en  helplessly  so. 
Its  president,  Willard,  has  "  no  zeal  "  ;  Professor  Pearson, 
"  no  influence  "  ;  Tappan  is  a  "  moderate  Calvinist  "  ;  Pop- 
kin,  a  "Socinian."  East  of  Worcester,  seventy-five  min- 
isters out  of  two  hundred  may  be  reckoned  "  orthodox  " ; 
in  Plymouth  County,  only  two  out  of  twenty  ;  in  Boston, 
one  out  of  nine.  This,  however,  can  be  counted  as  hardly 
more  than  a  vague  unrest.  The  old  Congregational  order 
is  still  unbroken.  Buckminster,  most  ardent  of  the  liberals, 
writes  to  Belsham  in  1809:  "  Except  in  the  little  town  of 
Boston  and  its  vicinity,  there  cannot  be  collected  from  any 
space  of  one  hundred  miles  six  clergymen  who  have  any 
conception  of  rational  theology,  and  who  would  not  shrink 
from  the  suspicion  of  antitrinitarianism  in  any  shape." 
The  "Monthly  Repository"  of  181 2  (p.  200)  complains 
of  the  extreme  reticence  of  the  Boston  ministers,  in  con- 
trast with  their  more  outspoken  English  sympathizers. 
It  was  not  only  tljat  they  appreciated  to  the  full  their 
advantage  as  members  in  good  standing  of  an  established 
order ;  but  at  this  period  they  honestly  distrusted  the  rad- 
ical tendencies  pushing  to  the  front  in  L^nglish  Unitarian- 
ism,  and  (lid  not  choose  to  wear  its  name.  Priestley's 
"materialism"  was  an  object  of  vague,  ignorant  dread; 
anfl  from  lioston  there  had  gone  no  word  of  greeting  to 
him  in  his  exile. 

Tills  period  of  silent  and  dull  neutrality  was  broken,  in 
1805,  by  the  appointment  of  Henry  Ware  as  Hollis  pro- 
fessor of  divinity  in  Harvard  College.  He  was  now,  at 
the  age  of  forty-one,  a  modest  country  minister,  settled 
in  Hingham,  Mass.,  a  man  of  singularly  blended  sweetness 
of  temper,  austere  integrity  of  conscience,  and  a  touching 
humility  of  spirit,  well  known  as  siding  with  the  liberal 


1 88  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  viii. 

party.  His  appointment  was  the  first  clear  public  mani- 
festo of  that  party's  advanced  strength.  President  Wil- 
lard  had  died  in  the  autumn  of  1804.  Nearly  two  years 
later,  Samuel  Webber,  professor  of  mathematics — also  the 
"  liberal  "  candidate,  opposed  by  the  Hebrew  professor, 
Pearson,  who  had  vainly  contended  against  Mr.  Ware's 
election — was  appointed  in  Willard's  place.  His  install- 
ment was  soon  followed  by  three  others — Sidney  Willard, 
John  Quincy  Adams,  and  John  Farrar,  in  the  chairs  of 
Hebrew,  rhetoric,  and  mathematics — all  pointing  the  same 
way.  These  five  appointments  within  two  years  made  that 
university  conspicuously  the  headquarters  of  intellectual 
and  religious  liberalism  in  America.^ 

The  alarm  or  anger  felt  by  many  at  the  attitude  thus 
taken  by  the  university  naturally  turned,   in   particular, 
against   the    election    of    the    theological   professor.      The 
chair  had  been  founded  in    1723   by  Thomas  Hollis,  an 
English   Dissenter,  a   Baptist,  though   not  a  Calvinist  in 
the  stricter  sense.      It  had  been  further  endowed  by  the 
"Henchman  Legacy  "  of   1747   and  strengthened  by  the 
"Hopkins  Fund"   of   1657,  both   representing  the  well- 
known  New  England  theology.     One  of  its  conditions  was  , 
that  the  incumbent  should  be  of  "  sound  and  orthodox  "  j 
belief.      On  these  grounds  the  election  had  been  actively 
opposed  by  Professor  Pearson,  himself  a  "  fellow  "  -  of  the 
university  and  a  candidate  for  its  presidency.      It  was  now; 
acrimoniously  attacked  as  a  flagrant  breach  of  trust  by! 
Dr.  Jedediah  Morse,  minister  of  Charlestown.  in  a  pamphlet 
of  "True  Reasons"  assigned  for  it.      All  the  grounds  he 
presented  had  been  fully  considered  by  the  Corporation, 

1  Quincy's  "  History  of  Harvard  University,"  vol.  ii.,  pp.  284-291. 
Otlier  apiMjintments  made  during  the  same  period,  but  declined,  further  em- 
]-)ha.sizc  this  fact :  those  of  Fisher  Ames  as  president,  and  of  John  Pickering, 
Nathaniel  Bowditch,  and  Joseph  McKean  as  professors. 

2  A  member  of  the  Corporation,  the  immediate  governing  body. 


JOHN  SHERMAN;  ABIEL  ABBOT.  189 

which  made  answer  "  that  this  attempt  to  introduce  a  cat- 
et^orical  examination  into  the  creed  of  a  candidate  was  a 
barbarous  relic  of  Inquisitorial  power,  alien  alike  from  the 
genius  of  our  government  and  the  spirit  of  the  people; 
that  Hollis,  though  agreeing  with  Calvinists  in  some 
points,  was  notoriously  not  a  Calvinist ;  and  that  by  his 
statutes  he  prescribed  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments  as  the  rule  of  his  professor's  faith,  and  not  the 
Assembly's  Catechism."  ^  On  these  grounds  the  authorities 
of  the  university  rested,  not  taking  any  part  in  the  some- 
what virulent  discussion  that  followed.  As  a  direct  result 
of  the  "  gloom  over  the  university  "  cast  by  this  series  of 
events,  was  the  munificent  foundation  of  the  theological 
school  at  Andover,  whose  orthodoxy  is  protected  by  the 
periodical  signing  of  its  creed  by  each  of  its  instructors. 

The  liberal  party  were,  and  are,  justly  tenacious  of  their 
right  of  membership  in  the  historic  Congregational  order. 
In  MJissachusetts  this  has  never  been  denied  them.      Rut 
in  Connecticut  the  "  consociation  "  was  better  able  to  deal  1 
with  heresy.     1 1  ere  the  process  of  separation,  or  exclusion,  / 
was  already  begun.      In    1805   the  minister  of  Mansfield,  i 
Mr.   John   Sherman    (grandson    of   Roger  Sherman),   was  | 
deposed  for  free  thinking  on   the  subject  of  the  trinity. 
He   retired   to  a  small   congregation   in   Oldenbarneveldt 
(now  Trenton),  N.  Y.,  where  he  served  for  some  years, 
till  he  was  drawn  aside  into  journalism  and  politics.      Five 
years  later,   at  Coventry  in  Tolland  County,   Rev.  Abiel 
Abbot  was  taken  in  hand  by  the  consociation  of  that  dis- 
trict;    but,   appealing   to   a   "mutual    council,"   withdrew 
under  its  advice  by  a  voluntary  resignation,  and  went  to 
Peterborough,  N.  H.,  where  he  has  left  the  record  of  a 

1  Quincy's  "  History,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  2S5  ;  compare  p.  21 1  ;  vol.  i.,  pp.  16S- 
170.  Tlic  Henchman  Lci^acy  prescribes  "  the  well-known  confession  of  faitli 
drawn  up  l)y  a  synod  of  churches  in  New  I'",ngland  "  (sec  aliove,  p.  17.?) ;  the 
Hopkins  Fund  is  given  "  for  the  promotion  of  religion,  science,  and  ciiarity." 


I90  THE    rXITAKIAXS.  \Q\\\v.  VIII. 

loiiL^  term  of  useful  service,  and  the  memory  of  a  saintly 
life.  Difference  of  opinion  has  led  since  to  many  a  sep- 
aration of  minister  and  jjeople,  doubtless  painful,  but,  in 
the  ConfjrcL^ational  body,  to  few  or  no  ecclesiastical  trials. 
There  has  been  within  quite  recent  memory,  if  there  is 
not  now,  a  pretty  wide  diversity  of  doctrine  in  many  con- 
gregations, without  disturbing  their  outward  peace.  This 
should  be  remembered  in  judging  those  of  more  liberal 
views  among  the  Congregational  clergy,  who  have  been  so 
sharply  charged  with  concealment  or  evasion. 
/  The  account  given  a  few  years  later  by  Dr.  Channing 
\  is  the  most  precise  testimony  we  have  as  to  the  position  of 
those  who  afterwards  ranked  as  Unitarian:  "A  majority 
of  our  brethren  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  is  more  than 
man ;  that  he  existed  beifore  the  world ;  that  he  literally 
came  from  heaven  to  save  our  race ;  that  he  sustains  other 
offices  than  those  of  teacher  and  witness  of  the  truth ;  and 
that  he  still  acts  for  our  benefit  and  is  our  intercessor  with 
the  Father.  Others  reject  the  distinction  of  three  Persons, 
without  judging  on  system  as  to  his  nature  and  work. 
Others  believe  the  simple  humanity  of  Christ."  "We 
preach,"  he  says,  "precisely  as  if  no  such  doctrine  as  the 
trinity  had  ever  been  known."  "  Non-biblical  phrases 
ought  not  to  divide  us."  "  Should  differences  of  opinion 
cause  division  of  the  church? — a  solemn,  infinitely  impor- 
tant question."  "  We  are  vague,  because  we  are  faithful." 
This  is  as  far  as  possible  from  the  temper  of  controversy. 
At  that  time,  indeed,  there  was  an  almost  passionate  de- 
sire, on  the  part  of  liberals,  to  escape  from  controversy. 
The  best  minds  among  them  aimed  to  conduct  the  dis- 
cussion on  the  neutral  ground  of  scholarship  and  letters. 
Buckminster,  their  brightest  light, — of  whom  it  was  said 
that  forty  years  after  his  death  (in  1812)  there  were  Bos- 
ton merchants  who  could  not  recall  his  memory  without 


THE   "  M0\7'IILY  AXTI/OLOaV."  191 

tears, — was  best  known  by  his  eloquent  discourses  on  prac- 
tical piety  and  by  his  eager  studies  in  the  criticism  of  the 
Greek  Testament.  For  ten  years  together  the  points  at 
issue  were  discussed  alternately,  like  moves  in  a  friendly 
game  of  chess,  iij  the  annual  convention  sermon — not  by 
direct  attack  or  defense  of  doctrine,  but  by  defining  the 
"essentials"  of  Christian  faith.  For  once,  in  181 5,  after 
the  close  of  the  war  with  Great  Britain,  Channing  departed 
widely  from  theological  bickering  to  political  ethics,  in  a 
discourse  on  war  and  peace.  Still  the  controversy  emerged 
at  other  points. 

In  1803  the  "Anthology  Club"  was  founded  in  Boston 
as  a  rallying-ground  for-  those  of  known  liberal  sym- 
pathies, and  presently  became  the  recognized  exponent 
of  the  new  spirit.  It  consisted  of  fourteen  members,  six 
of  them  ministers,  and  its  gatherings  were  for  some  years 
the  most  important  social  events  in  that  community.  In 
November  appeared  the  first  number  of  the  "  Monthly 
Anthology,"  the  first  literary  and  critical  magazine  of 
note  in  America.  It  was  continued  till  June,  181 1  ;  and 
its  ten  volumes  are  still  of  interest  for  the  contemporary 
notices  they  give  of  such  topics  as  Scott's  new  poems  and 
the  total  eclipse  of  1806.  Less  space  than  we  might  ex- 
pect is  given  to  theological  discussion.  But,  indirectly, 
the  new  views  were  made  sharply  prominent  in  a  defense 
of  the  position  of  Harvard  College  (March,  1805)  against 
Dr.  Morse's  "  True  Reasons  "  ;  in  a  discussion  of  the  Sher- 
man case  (May,  1806);  in  a  review  of  Griesbach's  text 
and  the  Improved  Version  (in  181 1);  and  especially  in 
a  very  vigorous  comment  by  Rev.  S.  C.  Thacher  on  the 
position  taken  by  the  Andover  school  in  demanding  the 
periodical  signing  of  a  creed.  These  are  the  most  impor- 
tant contributions  of  the  "  Anthology  "  to  the  literature 
of  the  liberal  movement — disappointing  those  who  would 


192  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  viii. 

learn  more  of  the  inside  history.  It  was  followed  by 
the  "General  Repository"  (1812,  1813),  conducted  by 
Andrews  Norton,  with  a  sharper  eye  to  the  theological 
issue;  the  "Christian  Disciple"  (1813-24),  in  charge  of 
Noah  Worcester,  "  the  apostle  of  peacQ,"  aiming  chiefly 
to  be  a  journal  of  practical  religion  and  philanthropy ; 
and  the  "Christian  Examiner"  (1824-69),  which,  reflect- 
ing the  several  phases  -of  the  intellectual  change  coming 
to  pass  in  its  day,  became  in  its  later  years  an  independ- 
ent journal,  including  topics  of  political  ethics,  general  his- 
tory, and  the  higher  criticism.  All  these  journals  rather 
i  avoided  than  sought  matter  of  controversy,  giving  far  the 
larger  space  to  questions  of  general  moral  or  literary  in- 
terest.^ 

Two  sharp  shocks  broke  the  uneasy  truce  so  studiously  . 
kept.  Belsham's  "  Life  of  Lindsey,"  of  which  he  sent  a 
very  elegant  copy  to  Harvard  College,  contained  a  chapter 
on  "  American  Unitarianism,"  giving  correspondence  that 
showed  a  much  closer  alliance  of  several  Boston  liberals 
with  the  movement  in  England  than  they  had  been  sup- 
posed willing  to  admit.  The  story  got  wind.  In  18 15 
Dr.  Morse  saw  the  book,  and  caught  gladly  at  the  impli- 
cation. "  The  veil  was  now  torn  away,"  and  the  liberal 
party  were  compelled  to  accept,  very  reluctantly,  the  title 
"  Unitarian."  The  reluctance  was  sincere,  and  not  dis- 
honest. In  their  view,  it  was  highly  important,  for  the 
truth's  own  sake,  that  the  movement  should  be  sponta-j 
neous,  independent  of  sectarian  by-words  or  party  name. 
Thus  their  hand  was  forced.  But  the  result  was  inevi- 
table ;  it  was  also  right.  If  a  party  exist,  it  must  carry  its 
own  flag  and  be  known  by  its  name.     The  name  "  Unita- 

1  In  ten  years  the  "  Disciple"  contains  only  six  articles  that  throw  light 
on  the  theological  issues  of  the  time ;  the  "  Examiner  "  in  eight  years  has  no 
more.  Contrast  this  with  the  intensely  polemical  motive  of  the  "  Panoplist  " 
(1805-20)  and  of  the  "  Spirit  of  the  rily;rims  "  (cstalilished  in  1828). 


JOnX  LOWELL;    //'.    E.    CIIAXXLXG.  193 

rian  "  was  as  little  open  to  misconstruction  as  any  other. 
It  might  come  in  time  to  be  as  broadly  inclusive  and  hon- 
orable as  any  other. 

The  immediate  effect  \\as  to  wake  a  sudden  sense  of 
courage  and  strength.  It  had  been  asked,  "  Shall  we  have 
the  Boston  religion,  or  the  Christian  religion?"  Answer 
was  made — not  by  a  theologian,  but  by  a  man  of  the 
world — in  a  very  vigorous  pamphlet  with  the  title  "  Are 
you  a  Christian  or  a  Calvinist?"  The  pamphlet  was 
written  by  John  Lowell,  brother  of  the  preacher  and  one 
of  the  corporation  of  Harvard  University.  The  conflict 
was  waged  "  without  gloves,"  in  wdiolesome  plainness  of 
speech.  Impatient  of  a  tame  and  apologetic  defense,  the 
writer  takes  the  tone  of  attack.  He  vindicates  the  atti- 
tude of  the  university;  turns  the  tables  upon  Dr.  Morse; 
scorns  all  attempts  at  a  show  of  ecclesiastical  domination ; 
reads  a  sound  lecture  from  the  history  of  intolerance ;  dis- 
dains the  rule  of  association,  council,  or  consociation,  just 
as  it  had  been  refused  by  the  good  sense  of  Massachusetts 
a  century  before.'  Such  words  as  these  cleared  the  dull 
air.  Theologians  caught  a  new  tone  of  courage  from  their 
lay  champion.  This  is  the  tone  we  hear  in  Channing's 
Baltimore  sermon  of  1819,  the  first  clear  voice  that  roused 
the  Unitarians  of  America  to  understand  what  tlie  position 
they  had  drifted  into  really  meant.  Unitarianism,  when 
this  discourse  was  published,  was  charged  as  pure  rational- 
ism. "  W'e  must  choose,"  retorted  Channing,  "  between 
rational  Christianity  and  infidelity." 

The  second  shock  was  from  the  decision  rendered  in 
1820  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts  in  the  case 
of  the  parish  at   Dedham,  from  which  a  majority  of  the 

'  Natlianicl  Emmons  (i 745-1840)  s.iid,  in  his  sharp  indivithialistic  temper, 
".Association  leads  to  Consociation,  Consociation  to  I'rcshyterianism,  Preshy- 
terianisni  to  Episcopalianism,  and  I'lpiscopaHanis'"  to  Popery." 


194  ^^^    UNITARIANS.  LChap.  viii. 

church-members  had  withdrawn  on  the  election  of  a  Hb- 
eral  minister:  that  "when  the  majority  of  the  members  of 
a  Congregational  church  shall  separate  from  the  majority 
of  the  parish,  the  members  who  remain,  although  a  minor- 
ity, constitute  the  church  in  such  parish,  and  retain  the 
rights  and  property  belonging  thereto."  This  decision, 
though  perhaps  logically  necessary,  was  bitterly  resented : 
it  lent,  or  seemed  to  lend,  the  hand  of  law  to  help  the 
liberal  as  presumably  the  more  secular  party ;  it  added 
the  sting  of  wrong  to  the  sense  of  loss.^  It  was,  however, 
the  decision  of  a  lay  tribunal,  purely  technical,  and  bear- 
ing but  indirectly  upon  our  proper  topic.  The  general 
results  of  the  period  now  brought  to  a  close  will  be  best 
told  in  the  words  of  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher,  speaking  of  the 
time  (1823)  when  he  came  to  Boston:  "All  the  literary 
men  of  Massachusetts  were  Unitarian ;  all  the  trustees 
and  professors  of  Harvard  College  were  Unitarian ;  all  the 
elite  of  wealth  and  fashion  crowded  Unitarian  churches ; 
the  judges  on  the  bench  were  Unitarian,  giving  decisions 
by  which  the  peculiar  features  of  church  organization  so 
carefully  ordered  by  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  had  been  nulli- 
fied, and  all  the  power  had  passed  into  the  hands  of  the 
congregation." 

1  See  a  full  and  dispassionate  statement  of  the  case  in  a  volume  entitled 
"  Unitarianism,  Its  Origin  and  History,"  made  by  Dr.  G.  E.  Ellis,  president 
of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  (Boston:  A.  U.  A.), 


CHAPTER   IX. 

PERIOD    OF    CONTROVERSY    AND    EXPANSION. 

The  Unitarians  of  Boston  and  its  vicinity  first  felt  the 
courage  of  their  convictions,  and  knew  where  their  real 
strength  lay,  when  Channing  delivered  his  celebrated  dis- 
course in  Baltimore,  on  the  5th  of  May,  1819.  At  this 
time  we  may  reckon  the  number  of  their  churches  as 
about  one  hundred  and  twenty  in  eastern  Massachusetts, 
with  nine  or  ten  in  the  other  New  England  States.  Of 
these  not  one  called  itself  Unitarian,  and  only  one  has 
adopted  that  name  since. ^  The  movement  represented 
by  it  was,  further,  confined  within  extremely  narrow  local 
boundaries.  A  radius  of  thirty-five  miles  from  Boston  as 
a  center  would  sweep  almost  the  whole  field  of  its  history 
and  influence.  Outside  of  this,  twelve  or  fifteen  churches 
lay  in  a  belt  a  little  to  the  north,  running  as  far  back  as  to 
the  Connecticut  River ;  while  the  important  towns  of  Port- 
land, Portsmouth,  Worcester,  Providence,  and  New  Bed- 
ford made  its  frontier  stations.  Baltimore  and  Charleston 
were  distant  outposts,  established  in  181  7;  New  York  and 
Springfield  were  added  to  the  list  in  this  very  year. 

Channing  was  now  at  the  age  of  thirty-nine.  lie  was 
best  known,  hitherto,  as  a  fervent  preacher  of  practical 
piety  in  the  Boston  pulpit :   a  man  of  slight  personal  pres- 

1  That  in  North  Chcl.sc.-i  (Revere),  wliich  took  the  name  in  1887.  Of  the 
twenty-nine  Boston  churches  now  known  as  Unitarian  only  four  are  so 
(lesif^nated  in  their  title.  That  name  had  lieen  given,  in  1819,  only  to  the 
two  founded  by  Priestley  in  Pennsylvania,  at  Northumberland  (1794)  and 
Philadelphia  (1796). 

195 


196  THE    UNITARIAXS.  '         [Chap.  ix. 

ence  and  retiring  ways,  with  little  that  would  mark  him 
as  a  probable  leader  in  public  controversy.  Though,  since 
the  death  of  Buckminster  in  18 12,  he  had  been  the  fore- 
most champion  of  the  liberal  theology,  no  one  was  more 
solicitous  than  he  that  the  movement  should  be  kept 
within  the  lines  of  historic  Congregationalism,  or  protested 
more  sincerely  against  defining  that  movement  by  the  one 
narrow  term  "  Unitarian."  Quite  reluctantly,  in  1815,  he 
had  been  drawn  into  a  very  prominent  position  in  the  con- 
troversy with  Dr.  Samuel  Worcester,  when  he  pleaded  as 
urgently  for  keeping  the  Congregational  body  unbroken 
as  he  contended  earnestly  against  some  of  its  cardinal 
points  of  doctrine.  When  Jared  Sparks  (better  known  \ 
since  in  the  field  of  history)  was  installed  minister  of  a  \ 
church  in  Baltimore  avowedly  Unitarian;  in  a  structure 
then  probably  the  noblest  in  its  architecture  that  any 
American  Protestant  body  could  boast,  Channing  chose  so 
notable  an  occasion  for  appeal  in  a  higher  tone,  to  a  far^ 
wider  hearing,  than  any  that  had  been  had  as  yet.  His 
discourse  was  not  an  argument  addressed  to  theologians 
on  disputed  points  of  doctrine,  but  an  impeachment  of  the 
orthodoxy  of  that  day  at  the  bar  of  the  popular  reason  and 
conscience.  The  terms  in  which  he  described  it  were  re- 
sented, even  then,  as  exaggerated  and  unjust.  Certainly 
we  may  well  doubt  whether  at  this  day  a  single  reputable 
pulpit  in  America  would  profess  the  naked  Calvinism  he 
arraigned. 

The  argument  of  the  discourse,  which  has  become  his-    ^ 
torical,  is  cast  in  five  divisions.      Eirst,  it  deals  with  the    \ 
unreason  of   the   trinity,   the   perplexity  it    offers   to   the    '• 
understanding,  especially  the  confusion  of  thought  as  to 
the  proper  object  of  worship — here    taking   the    familiar 
ground  of  the  English  Unitarians.      Next,  it  sets  forth  the 
like  confusion  of  thought  as  induced  by  the  metaphysics 


C//AA'A'/jVG'S  BALTIMORE   SERMON.  \g'] 

of  Christ's  double  nature.  Thirdly,  it  charges  the  moral 
paradox  of  the  alleged  conflict  of  justice  and  mercy  in  the 
Divine  Nature,  by  which  the  reverence  due  to  the  Holy 
One  is  baffled  and  perplexed.  Agarn,  it  dwells  upon  the 
moral  enormity  of  a  view  of  the  Atonement  which  only 
exasperates  and  heightens  the  supposed  conflict  it  clain:i3 
to  reconcile.  Lastly,  the  true  nature  of  Salvation  is  set 
forth  as  a  moral  or  spiritual  condition  of  the  soul  itself, 
and  this  is  contrasted  with  the  arbitrary  "  imputation  "  of 
another's  righteousness.  ')  Channing,  it  may  be  charged, 
was  not  greatly  learned  in  theology,  not  a  master  in  met- 
aphysics, not  elaborately  trained  in  controversy.  No  be- 
liever in  the  trinity  that  ever  lived,  it  may  be,  would  admit 
his  statement  of  it  to  be  correct.  But  no  man  ever  put 
more  cogently  than  he  the  plain  language  of  reason  and 
conscience  as  it  goes  out  to  the  common  mind.  For  the 
purpose  of  his  argument  this  was  enough.  It  was  enough, 
too,  for  the  style  of  debate  with  which  he  had  to  deal. 
Even  so  scholarly  an  opponent  as  Professor  Stuart  has 
only  to  say,  by  way  of  reply,  that  the  "  persons"  of  the 
trinity  mean  "  some  distinction,  not  three  beings  or  sepa- 
rate consciousnesses.  What  is  that  distinction  ?  I  do  not 
know.  It  is  a  fact,  .  .  .  but  we  do  not  pretend  to  under- 
stand what  it  is."  "  Unitarianism,"  he  adds,  "will  come 
to  pure  rationalism — tlie  sooner  the  better.  Then  the 
parties  will  understand  each  other." 

Not  the  argument  of  the  Baltimore  discourse,  however, 
so  much  as  its  positive  and  aggressive  tone,  the  total  ab- 
sence of  apology  in  it,  accounts  for  the  effect  it  appears 
to  have  had  as  argument.  To  this  we  must  add,  besides, 
the  warm  projihet-glow  which  made  it  not  a  bald  essay  of 
doctrinal  theology,  but  a  li\-ing  discourse  of  positive  re- 
ligion. It  became,  accordingly,  the  keynote  of  what  is 
known  to   this  day  as  "  Channing   Unitarianism."     This 


198  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  ix. 

style  of  doctrine  clings  very  closely  to  the  Scripture  text, 
and  shelters  itself,  a  little  anxiously,  within  the  lines  of 
church  tradition,  attenuated  as  they  may  be  in  the  rare 
and  chill  atmosphere  of  modern  speculation.  But  its  main 
motive  is  ethical,  human,  secular.  It  addresses  the  con- 
science, rather  than  the  sentiment  of  an  unreasoning  de- 
votion. Its  aim  is,  through  moral  feeling  and  a  purified 
affection,  to  tell  directly  upon  action,  and  in  that  sense  to 
interpret  religion  as  a  spirit  and  a  life.  In  respect  of  doc- 
trine, it  is  unsatisfying  and  vague.  Rejecting  creeds,  it 
has  as  yet  no  firm  hold  on  scientific  thought.  Modern 
cosmology  and  modern  criticism  are  a  world  unknown  to 
it.  The  field  it  shows  in  to  best  advantage  is  the  field  of 
the  larger  and  finer  ethics  of  human  life,  ethics  both  per- 
sonal and  social.  It  has  done  much  to  exalt  and  vitalize 
the  common  moralities,  which  it  has  always  been  charged 
with  laying  too  much  stress  upon  ;  and  it  has,  in  particular, 
led  the  way  to  much  of  the  best  work  of  our  day  in  edu- 
cation and  the  larger  humanities.  In  the  later  years  of 
his  life,  Channing  was  most  widely  known  as  a  Christian 
philanthropist.  It  was  he  who  perhaps  contributed  most, 
through  his  friend  Joseph  Tuckerman,  to  the  earliest 
effective  organizing  of  the  charities  of  Boston  in  the  Fra- 
ternity of  Churches,  established  in  1835.  Such  topics  as 
general  education,  temperance,  humane  legislation,  refor- 
mation of  criminals,  international  peace,  had  in  him  an 
eager,  fluent,  effective  advocate.  With  a  certain  hardi- 
hood that  might  seem  alien  from  his  shrinking  and  vale- 
tudinarian temper,  he  stood  openly  upon  the  public 
platform  beside  the  abolitionist  leaders,  whose  counsel 
and  methods  he  did  not  accept,  when  they  were  most 
vindictively  assailed.  The  most  elaborate  essays  he  ever 
composed  were  the  series  treating  the  social  and  political 
aspects  of  American  slavery.     There  is  no  more  character- 


1 


C//AXXIXG    UNITARIAXISM.  1 99 

istic  exhibition  of  his  serene,  idealizing,  hopeful  style  of 
eloquence  than  in  the  Lenox  address  on  emancipation  in 
the  British  West  Indies,  delivered  a  few  weeks  before  his 
death.  ^ 

"  The  healthiest  period  in  the  moral  life  of  Boston  and 
its  vicinity,"  wrote  Dr.  Gannett,  "  was  during  the  quarter 
of  a  century  between  the  years  18 10  and  1835."  These 
were  the  days  when  Channing's  purely  religious  influence  , 
was  most  powerful ;  before  the  days  when  the  Unitarian 
body  was  sharply  divided  on  points  of  critical  theology, 
and  when  the  questions  touching  slavery  went  so  deep 
into  our  political  life.  It  was  not  a  period  of  special  depth 
or  earnestness  in  religious  thought.  The  essays  that  fol- 
lowed up  old  lines  of  discussion  were  mostly  re-statements 
of  the  familiar  argument,  void  of  the  genuine  though  acrid 
heat  of  controversy.  The  time  of  scientific  criticism  was 
not  yet,  and  doctrine  as  development  had  not  come  to  be 
matter  of  historic  curiosity.  When  the  question  of  Christ's 
preexistence  was  stirred,  in  1822,  "Leave  it  alone,"  said 
Henry  Ware,  Jr. — then  a  young  minister  of  Boston,  singu- 
larly beloved,  of  sweet  and  humble  temper,  with  occasional 
quick  sharpness  of  speech  and  well  versed  in  debate — 
"  leave  it  alone  ;  it  is  a  thing  of  small  consequence ! "  The 
"Christian  Examiner"  was  founded  in  1824  to  take  the 
place  of  the  "  Christian  Disciple,"  whose  tone  was  thought 
to  be  too  smooth  and  vague,  and  was  conducted  by  a 
series  of  able  editors ;  but  in  its  first  year  it  disclaimed 
sympathy  with  Universalism,  which,  as  a  kindred  and 
more  positive  creed,  might  possibly  have  touched  the  mild 
liberalism  of  that  day  with  a  more  virile  temper.  The 
advance  in  theology  was  timid  and  faltering.  A  tone  of 
weariness  and  self-distrust  has  been  found,  or  suspected, 

1  He  died  of  autumn  fever,  at  Bennington,  Vt.,  October  2,  1842,  at  tlie 
age  of  .si.\ty-t\vo. 


200  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Ciiai-.  ix. 

in  the  Unitarian  literature  of  the  years  ensuing,  as  if  from 
distaste  or  fatigue  of  tlie  long-drawn  battle.  The  most 
significant  word  spoken  in  this  interval  was  but  a  half-way 
word  of  apology,  appearing  in  the  "  Examiner"  in  1829, 
to  the  effect  that  the  Bible  is,  after  all,  "  not  a  revelation, 
but  the  record  of  a  revelation."  Tlie  formula  passed  cur- 
rent for  a  time,  but  soon  caught  the  unfriendly  eye. 
"There,  it  is  out  at  last!"  was  the  exulting  cry  of  the 
"  Spirit  of  the  Pilgrims,"  eager  to  renew  the  battle.  The 
"pure  rationalism  "  predicted  by  Moses  Stuart  seemed  to 
be  already  in  the  field.  Unitarianism,  said  Channing 
ten  years  later,  speaking  of  this  time,  was  but  "  a  protest 
of  the  understanding  against  absurd  dogmas.  We  were 
early  paralyzed  by  the  mixture  of  philosophy,  and  fell  too 
much  into  the  hands  of  scholars  and  political  reformers." 
The  last  word  of  the  Unitarian  controversy,  as  a  still  living 
issue  on  the  old  lines,  is  held  to  have  been  spoken  when, 
in  1833,  Rev.  George  B.  Cheever  delivered  at  Salem  a 
discourse  described  as  "  vituperative,"  to  which  no  formal 
reply  seems  to  have  been  offered.  With  this,  and  a  "  Post- 
script "  addressed  to  the  "  Examiner,"  we  have  "  the  last 
publication  of  any  note  before  the  controversy  virtually 
ceased."^ 

"The  result  is,"  said  Dr.  Gannett,  speaking  in  1835, 
-J-,  "we  are  a  community  by  ourselves."  The  process  by 
which  the  two  "  wings  "  of  the  Congregational  body  in 
Massachusetts  had  gradually  drawn  apart,  began  very 
far  back.  In  1812  Rev.  John  Codman,  of  Dorchester,  an- 
nounced at  his  settlement  that  in  tlie  customary  pulpit 
exchanges  of  courtesy  with  neighboring  ministers  he 
should  be  free   (which   meant   that  he  would  be   bound) 

1  Tlie  nature  of  the  questions  at  issue,  and  especially  their  bearing  on  the 
religious  topics  of  the  ihiy,  should  be  studied  in  "  .\  Half  Century  of  the 
Unitarian  Controversy,"  by  George  E.  I^llis,  D.P.  (lidstmi,  1S57). 


LV.U.LV  BEECH ER  IN  BOSTOX.  20I 

to  draw  the  line  against  those  not  orthodox.  This  an- 
nouncement was  reckoned  harsh  and  strange,  and  it  led  to 
a  local  controversy  of  some  sharpness,  in  which  Mr.  Cod- 
man  gained  his  point.  There  remained,  however,  and  has 
continued  to  this  day,  a  neutral  belt,  within  which  the 
ancient  courtesies  are  still  exchanged. 

But   the    line    of   distinction   was  growing  more  broad 
and  distinct  with  yeans.      In   1823  the  orthodox  position, 
held  till  then  by  only  one  of  the  Boston  Congregational 
churches,  was  greatly  strengthened  by  the  coming  of  Dr. 
Lyman    Beecher    to   the   charge   of  a  congregation   just 
gathered  in  Park  Street — "  Brimstone  Corner,"  as  it  was 
fondly  called  during  the  years  of  orthodox  revival  which 
followed.      In  1828  the  "Spirit  of  the  Pilgrims"  was  es- 
tablished, to  aid  in  winning  back  the  ground  that  had  been 
lost ;  and  this  fresh  voice  vigorously  sustained  the  policy 
of  excluding  the  new  light  from  evangelical  pulpits.      In 
the  same  year  the  "  Christian  Examiner  "  showed  also  an 
unwonted    access   of   polemical   ardor:    three   articles   on 
"  infant  damnation,"  the  sorest  spot  of  the  old  Calvinism, 
and  a  paper  by  Orville  Dewey  on  "  Orthodoxy  and  Lib- 
eralism," testify  to  the  fresh  zest  of  controversy.      Charges  • 
of  bigotry  were  hotly  pressed  on  one  side,  to  be  repelled 
disdainfully  by  the  other;  but  "  Are  they  not  true?"  asks 
Channing,  in   1831.      The  zeal,  however,  w;is  short-lived, 
and  seems  to  have  lapsed,  in  a  year  or  two,  into  the  some-^ 
what  languid  indifference  before   noted;    and,   with    this,; 
Unitarian  journals  admit  a  certain  lack  and  sterility  of  thd 
religious  life  in  too  many  of  their  congregations,  especiall)^ 
the  country  churches,  in  contrast  with  the  new  awakening 
of  Evangelicanism  in  New  l^ngland. 

In  1831  we  hear  the  first  note  of  "  German  Rational- 
ism "  in  a  paper  by  P>ancis  Cunningham  (the  earliest 
translator  of  Giesclcr  into  ICnglish),  showing  that  Unita- 


202  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  ix. 

rian  tliought  already  begins  to  turn  towards  new  issues.  It 
is,  further,  an  interesting  point  to  remark  that  the  fading 
out  of  the  older  controversy  in  1833  exactly  coincides  with 
the  withdrawal  of  all  legal  support  from  the  churches  of 
Massachusetts,  which  must  rely  thenceforth  wholly  on 
voluntary  gifts.  Here  the  advantage  was  to  those  of  the 
more  positive  and  aggressive  faith.  The  disestablishment, 
it  is  probable,  was  more  dreaded  by  the  liberal  party ;  and 
the  advocacy  of  it  by  some  of  the  more  orthodox  may  be 
taken  as  a  damaging  retort  to  the  Dedham  decision,  which 
had  turned  over  the  old  church  powers  and  properties  to 
secular  hands. 

But  the  Unitarians  were  well  content  with  the  immense 
advantage  they  still  held  in  that  undisputed  socia<l  and 
political  ascendancy  so  well  described  by  Dr.  Beecher.  In 
the  exercise  of  this  advantage  it  may  be  claimed  that  they 
were  not  wholly  unworthy  custodians  of  it.  The  motive 
of  their  gospel,  as  announced  and  upheld  by  Channing, 
was  fundamentally  ethical :  it  appealed  to  conscience,  and 
aimed  directly  to  affect  the  conduct  of  life.  Such  a  gos- 
pel is  not  like  a  creed,  which  demands  rigid  interpreting 
of  its  terms.  It  is  rather  a  law  of  life,  capable  of  infinitely 
modified  and  varying  application.  What  it  was  in  the 
character  of  the  lay  public  to  which  it  made  appeal,  and 
in  the  scrupulous  administration  of  great  public  trusts,  has 
been  often  told,  and  makes  the  most  characteristic  as  it  is 
the  most  honorable  chapter  in  the  story  of  Unitarianism 
in  America.  A  long  line  of  jurists,  statesmen,  men  of 
science  or  of  business,  including  such  names  as  Adams, 
Ouincy,  Bigelow,  Jackson,  Shaw,  Lowell,  Perkins,  Apple- 
ton  ;  of  men  of  letters,  including,  with  hardly  an  excep- 
tion, every  one  of  those  who,  from  Prescott  to  Holmes, 
have  given  Boston  its  place  in  our  intellectual  history — 
testify  not  so  much    the    direct    influence   and   power  of 


REPRESENTATIVE  NAMES.  203 

Unitarianism  itself,  as  the  nature  of  the  soil  it  sprang  from, 
and  of  the  mental  atmosphere  in  which  it  throve.  But 
the  diversities  of  type  and  operation  it  put  directly  forth 
will  be  seen  most  clearly  in  a  group — which  I  sketch  from 
personal  memories — of  honored  names  among  its  preach- 
ers, friends  and  companions  of  Channing  in  his  work,  who 
exhibit  in  varying  phases  the  light  of  that  faith  which  is 
properly  characteristic  of  the  period  he  represents. 

A  few  such  names,  of  those  no  longer  living,  are  the 
following:  Orville  Dewey  (i 794-1 882),  a  man  of  unique 
power  in  the  pulpit,  which  was  his  throne,  in  whom 
thought  was  more  intimately  blended  with  emotion  than 
in  any  other  great  preacher  we  have  listened  to  or  can 
easily  bring  to  mind,  who  seemed  to  make  the  sacred  desk 
a  confessional  to  whisper  the  most  secret  things  of  the 
religious  life,  whose  large  and  brooding  intellect  set  itself 
to  interpret  the  soul's  deepest  experience  in  terms  of  fresh- 
est knowledge  and  youngest  thought,  whose  mind  was 
generously  open  till  long  past  eighty  to  the  latest  methods 
or  discoveries  in  the  pursuit  of  truth ;  Nathaniel  Langdon 
Frothingham  (i  793-1870),  the  very  model — like  his  friend 
and  classmate  Everett — of  a  Christian  gentleman  and 
scholar,  cultivated  in  mind,  refined  in  taste,  placid  of  tem- 
per, courteous  and  sweet  in  manner,  of  intellect  widely 
open  to  the  welcome  of  freshest  truth,  but  jealously  alive 
to  the  traditions  and  sanctities  of  religious  observance ; 
James  Walker  (i  794-1874),  president  of  the  university, 
most  grave  and  candid  of  divines,  honored  alike  in  pro- 
fessional and  in  academic  life,  of  singular  ethical  weight 
and  power  in  the  pulpit,  a  man  whose  shrewd  wisdom, 
generous  tolerance,  wide  philosophic  culture,  and  dignity 
of  character  were  not  more  marked  than  the  cordial  and 
kindly  interest  he  always  had  in  younger  men  ;  John  Pier- 
pont  (i  785-1866),  tender  religious  poet  and  high-tempered 


204  ^-^^    UNITARIANS,  [Chap.  ix. 

Christian  warrior,  proud,  combative,  fond  of  subtle  para- 
dox, hot  with  the  glow  of  ethical  passion,  eager  to  strike 
out  every  way  in  the  battle  of  reform,  always  pressing 
home  some  sharp  point  of  his  aggressive  moral  creed ; 
Samuel  Joseph  May  (i 797-1871),  that  brave  saint  of  all 
the  humanities,  in  whom  sweetness  and  courage  were  more 
perfectly  blended  than  in  any  other  we  have  known,  whose 
great  heart  by  a  generous  instinct  went  out  every  way  to 
the  poor,  the  forsaken,  and  the  oppressed,  whose  temper 
was  so  radiant  with  kindly  humor  that  they  who  loved 
him  may  say  that  only  to  have  looked  upon  him  was  a 
sort  of  sunshine  in  one  nook  at  least  of  the  most  unfriended 
life;  Ezra  Stiles  Gannett  (i 801-71),  Channing's  colleague 
and  successor  in  the  Federal  Street  pulpit,  most  fervid 
and  devoted  of  men,  whose  conscience,  morbidly  acute, 
was  burdened  with  every  grief  and  sin  of  the  city  where 
he  did  his  noble  work,  whose  burning  speech  almost  in- 
spired the  cool  temper  of  Boston  -Unitarianism  with  his 
own  missionary  zeal,  of  whom  it  may  well  be  said  that  ten 
such  men  would  have  carried  the  blaze  of  his  generous 
gospel  like  a  prairie  fire  from  shore  to  shore  of  our  conti- 
nent;  George  Putnam  (1807-77),  whose  clear  argumenta- 
tive statement  commanded  the  respect  of  the  ablest  jur- 
ists, whose  large  sense  matched  the  worldly  wisdom  of 
statesmen  and  financiers,  the  eloquent  orator  of  homely 
morality  and  the  religion  of  every-day  life,  which  his 
touch  transfigured  to  poetry  and  splendor;  Ephraim  Pea- 
body  (1807-56),  his  classmate  and  nearest  friejid,  the 
well-beloved  minister  of  King's  Chapel,  whose  voice  was 
melody  and  his  face  a  benediction,  who  so  patiently  en- 
dured much  po\'erty  and  sorrow  in  his  earlier  ministry 
that  its  later  prosperity  and  joy  were  always  touched  with 
grave  humility  of  spirit,  in  whom  serenity,  sweetness,  and 
a  cautious  wisdom  were  eathered  in  a  combination  as  rare 


/■'.MEKSOWS   R/-:SJGXA770\.  205 

as  it  was  attracti\e ;  William  Greenlcaf  Eliot  (181  r-87), 
who  in  his  bright  youth  left  the  most  flattering"  prospects 
of  a  metropolitan  career  that  he  might  devote  his  life,  as 
he  did  with  singular  intelligence,  consecration,  and  energy, 
to  what  was  then  remote  frontier  ser\-ice  in  St.  Louis, 
gaining  for  his  reward  the  largest  moral  and  personal 
power  accorded  to  any  man  in  that  great  community ; 
Andrew  Preston  Peabody  (1811—93),  everybody's  helper 
and  friend,  kindly,  scholarly,  grave,  in  whom  the  most 
gracious  type  of  the  elder  scriptural  Unitarianism  survi^•ed 
through  an  entire  generation,  welcomed  and  trusted  alike 
in  every  Christian  communion  regardless  of  all  bounds  of 
sect,  who,  when  lines  of  di^'ision  appeared  in  his  own  re- 
ligious body,  sided  somewhat  sharply  with  the  elder  party, 
yet  with  a.  kindliness  of  heart  that  widened  and  mellowed 
as  his  years  increased,  and  who,  with  rare  freshness  of 
physical  and  mental  vigor,  obeyed  every  summons  of 
social  or  public  duty  to  the  very  end.  These  memories 
may  serve  to  hint  the  quality  of  "  Boston  Unitarianism  " 
in  the  day  of  its  ascendancy  and  power.' 

In  the  year  1832,  just  while  the  glow  of  the  earlier  con- 
troversy was  fading  out,  the  first  open  break  was  made 
with  the  accepted  customs  of  the  Congregational  order. 
Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  minister  of  the  Second  Church  in 
Boston  (where  he  had  .succeeded  Henry  Ware,  Jr.,  three 
years  before),  resigned  his  charge  on  the  refusal  of  his 
church-members  to  discontinue  or  radically  change  the 
order  of  communion  service.  The  discourse  in  which  he 
took  leave  of  his  congregation,  in  giving  reasons  for  the 
step,  reviews  briefly  the  practice  of  the  primitive  church, 
examines  in  detail  the  New  Tjsstament  grounds  for  regard- 

1  The  character  of  tlie  earlier  l^nitarianism  will  he  hest  traced  in  tlie  vnl- 
inne.s  of  "American  I'nitarian  T>i<)<;rapliy,  "  ethtcd  hy  Rev.  WilHam  Ware 
(fJoston,  2  vols.),  and  in  Dr.  .Spraguc's  "Annals  of  the  American  Pulpit," 
vol.  viii. 


206  THE   UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  ix. 

ing  the  Lord's  Supper  as  a  positive  ordinance,  and  states 
briefly  the  practical  objections  to  the  customary  form.  It 
is,  in  short,  quite  the  most  formal  and  argumentative  essay 
that  remains  to  us  of  Emerson's  composition.^  To  these 
reasons  he  might  have  added  that  Congregationalism  has 
never  regarded  the  Lord's  Supper  as  a  sacrament  vitally 
essential ;  and  that  it  was  almost  wholly  suspended  during 
the  first  nine  years  of  the  Plymouth  colony,  because  it 
might  not  be  administered  by  an  elder,  but  only  by  an 
ordained  pastor.  The  shock  was  nevertheless  sharply  felt 
— not  least,  it  is  probable,  by  the  Unitarians,  who  were  in 
general  devout  observers  of  that  ordinance,  and  might  feel 
a  jar,  as  of  suddenly  opening  the  gates  to  a  wide  and  un- 
familiar field  of  the  religious  life  outside.  Mr.  Emerson 
thus  withdrew,  in  his  thirtieth  year,  to  the  rural  life  which 
his  genius  has  made  illustrious,  and  for  some  years  lived 
content  in  that  calm  retreat. 

In  1836  that  genius  first  declared  itself  to  the  world  in 
the  quaint,  winning,  lovely,  and  sometimes  baffling  pages 
of  "  Nature,"  the  earliest  poetic  or  prophetic  breath  of  that 
fresh  mental  life  then  called  "transcendental."  It  was 
received  as  the  stirring  of  an  air  balmy  and  fragrant,  it 
might  be,  but  filled  with  strange  odors,  and  of  dubious 
effect  on  the  spiritual  climate.  Some  of  us  still  remember 
a  certain  grave  solicitude  with  which  its  phrases  were  first 
listened  to  by  Unitarians  of  the  elder  school,  who  felt 
rather  than  saw  whither  that  new  influence  might  tend. 
The  solicitude  deepened  when — heralded  by  the  wholly 
unconventional  style  and  charm  of  his  address  on  "  The 
American  Scholar  "  given  in  1837 — Mr.  Emerson  delivered 
in  July,  1838,  the  most  celebrated  and  influential  of  all 
his  public  discourses,  that  spoken  to  the  graduating  class 
of  the  Harvard  Divinity  School.      This  was  the  frankest 

1  It  is  given   in  full  in  an  appendix  to  0.  B.  Frothingham's  "  Transcend- 
eiUalism  in  New  England." 


£.U£A'SO.V'S  DIVINITY  SCHOOL  ADDRESS.  207 

challenge  ever  as  yet  thrown  down  to  the  traditional  views 
of  the  Divine  Nature,  Jesus,  Christianity,  or  the  offices  of 
the  church  ;  and  it  proved  the  melodious,  effective  prelude 
to  a  conflict  of  opinion  that  has  far  more  deeply  than  any 
other  stirred  the  current  of  our  religious  thought. 

The  feeling  with  which  the  Divinity  School  Address 
was  received  has  been  described  by  a  listener  to  it  as  "  a 
vague  and  exhilarating  delight :  it  had  shocked  some, 
while  it  had  charmed  others,  as  the  first  clear  word  of 
'  another  gospel,  which  yet  was  not  another.'  "  Its  covert 
doctrine  was  currently  supposed  to  be  Pantheism  ;  and  this 
was  described  by  one  of  the  critics  of  the  day  as  "  Atheism 
disguising  itself  under  a  preposterous  name,"  which  only 
made  the  danger  of  it  the  greater.  As  a  challenge  to  the 
dreaded  tendency,  Prof.  Henry  Ware,  Jr.,  preached  in  the 
college  chapel  a  sermon  on  "  the  personality  of  the  Deity,"' 
a  copy  of  which  he  sent  with  a  friendly  note  to  Mr.  Emer- 
son, eliciting  this  very  characteristic  reply :  "  I  could  not 
possibly  give  you  one  of  the  arguments  you  cruelly  hint 
at,  on  which  any  doctrine  of  mine  stands ;  for  I  do  not 
know  what  arguments  mean  in  reference  to  any  expres- 
sion of  thought."  "Not,"  adds  his  biographer,  "that  he 
was  incapable  of  reasoning,  but  always  disinclined  to 
argue;"  and  "upon  this  occasion  argument  would  have 
been  out  of  place." 

But  controversy  was  in  the  air,  and  was  formally  opened 
tiic  next  year  (1839)  by  Andrews  Norton,  late  professor  in 
the  School,  in  a  discourse  on  "  the  latest  form  of  infidel- 
ity." This  discourse  w^is  not  an  attack  on  any  position 
distinctly  taken  by  Mr.  Emerson,  or  on  the  critical  results 
of  German  scholarship,  whiqli  Mr.  Norton  had  himself,  in 
fact,  largely  adc^pted.'  It  dealt  rather  with  certain  ten- 
dencies in  German  thought  charged  as  vague,  delusive, 

1  As  .shown,  later,  in  his  "  Note"  on  the  Old  Testament,  and  in  his  rejec- 
tion of  tlic  first  two  cliaj)tcrs  of  Matthew's  Gospel  (sec  p.  210,  IkIow). 


208  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Cii.\i>.  ix. 

ciiul  "  pantheistic,"  represented  in  particular  by  Spinoza, 
Schlciermacher,  and  De  Wette.  Its  argument  was  a  formal 
and  very  able  defense  of  the  doctrine,  as  commonly  held, 
of  a  revelation  proved  by  miracle.  Mr.  Norton  was  gen- 
erally recognized  as  the  scholar  and  critic  best  equipped 
among  the  Unitarians,  and  his  charges  commanded  instant 
attention.  The  positive  tone  of  assertion  and  the  combat- 
ive temper  of  the  discourse  at  once  brought  forward  new 
parties  to  the  debate.  Of  the  replies,  much  the  ablest 
and  most  important  was  that  of  Rev.  George  Ripley,  then 
minister  of  a  congregation  newly  gathered  in  Purchase 
Street,  since  dissolved.  Mr.  Ripley  addressed  to  Profes- 
sor Norton  a  series  of  "  Letters,"  which  were  in  fact 
elaborate  essays,  making  a  moderately  thick  volume.  In 
these,  with  admirable  spirit  and  ability,  he  gave  citations 
so  copious  as  to  make  his  pamphlets  a  pretty  full  intro- 
duction and  guide  to  the  study  of  the  famous  writers 
whose  names  had  been  so  thrust  upon  the  public.  These 
pamphlets,  with  one  in  which  Mr.  Norton  sustained  and 
reinforced  his  charges,  amply  cover  the  ground  of  the  de- 
bate, though  se\'eral  writers  of  lesser  note  volunteered  to 
the  support  of  one  or  the  other  party. 

The  real  point  at  issue  in  that  debate  has  been  often 
misunderstood,  as  if  it  had  been  merely  the  question  of 
admitting  the  miraculous  or  supernatural  features  of  the 
gospel  history.  On  the  contrary,  Mr.  Ripley  says,  in  one 
of  his  letters,  "  For  my  own  part,  I  cannot  avoid  the  con- 
clusion that  the  miracles  related  in  the  Gospels  were  actu- 
ally wrought  by  Jesus;"  and  Theodore  Parker  (then  near 
the  age  of  thirt)^),  assuming  the  name  "  Levi  Blodgett," 
with  a  style  of  unlearned  and  rustic  plainness,  and  seeking 
to  bring  the  whole  case  before  the  bar  of  popular  com- 
mon sense,  says,  "  I  believe  that  Jesus,  like  other  religious 
teachers,  wrought   miracles."     It   thus  appears   that  the 


A0A'70Ar  AA'D   RIPLEY.  209 

dispute  was  not  as  to  their  opinions,  which  at  that  time 
were  in  the  main  those  generally  held ;  but  as  to  a  new 
and  unfamiliar  order  of  thought,  which  was  seen  to  be 
powerfully  afTecting  the  jjrinciples  and  foundations  of 
men's  religious  belief.  In  this  dispute  Mr.  Norton,  whose 
method  was  in  itself  the  more  rationalizing  and  scientific, 
held  to  the  hard-and-fast  supernaturalism  of  the  older 
Unitarian  school ;  while  his  opponents,  claiming  more  for 
the  distinctively  spiritual  side  of  man's  intelligence,  opened 
the  way  to  the  pure  naturalism,  with  all  its  critical  results, 
which  he  foresaw.  They  earnestly  maintained  the  reality 
of  the  religious  life,  wholly  independent  of  doctrinal  form ;' 
while  he  honestly  held  that  very  clearly  defined  opinion  is 
essential  to  any  hold  upon  religious  truth.  To  such  a 
mind  as  his  the  language  of  Mr.  Ripley,  or  that  of  thei 
German  theologians  whom  he  copied,  must  seem  vague, 
delusive,  and  sophistical. 

Meanwhile  the  work  of  criticism  had  been  going  on,  in 
•Hues  quite  independent  of  this  debate.  In  1 831,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  first  hint  had  been  given  of  that  form  of 
exposition  known  as  "  German  rationalism."  In  1834 
Rev.  (afterwards  Professor)  George  R.  Noyes,  then  the 
studious  pastor  of  a  country  parish,  published  an  essay  on 
the  Messianic  prophets,  as  fit  answer  to  which  was  sug- 
gested a  prosecution  under  the  old  Massachusetts  law  of 
blasphemy  ;  and  Attorney-General  Austin  was  understood 
to  stand  ready  to  conduct  the  case  if  the  terms  of  the 
statute  had  seemed  to  warrant.  Prof.  John  G.  Palfrey's 
"  Lectures  on  Jewish  History  and  Antiquities,"  published 
in  1840,  expounded  the  Book  of  Genesis  as  a  later  com- 
pilation from  at  least  two  independent  sources,  while 
defending  the  received  opinion  as  to  the  other  "  Mosaic  " 
writings.  A  "  Note  "  on  the  Old  Testament  by  Andrews 
Norton,    appearing    in    1844,    rejected    the    opinion    that 


2  10  THE    UXITARIAXS.  [Chai'.  i\. 

Moses  was  in  any  sense  the  author  of  the  Pentateuch,  or 
that  the  prophets  were  divinely  inspired  to  foretell  the 
mission  of  Christ ;  it  criticised  with  the  utmost  freedom 
the  history,  morals,  and  doctrine  found  in  the  Hebrew 
scriptures ;  and  maintained  the  exceptional  inspiration  of 
Moses  and  Elijah  purely  on  the  ground  of  allusions  made 
to  them  in  the  Gospels,  and  as  a  position  to  be  held  in  the 
argument  for  the  Christian  evidences.  About  the  same 
time  De  Wette's  "  Introduction  to  the  Old  Testament," 
translated  and  copiously  annotated  by  Theodore  Parker, 
brought  suddenly  into  view  the  whole  wide  range  of  Ger- 
man erudition  in  that  province. 

So  far,  the  discussion,  though  open  to  public  hearing, 
was  directly  addressed  to  scholars,  critics,  and  students  of 
theology.  But  a  word  of  note  had  been  spoken,  and  was 
widely  echoing,  from  the  South  Boston  pulpit,  where,  on 
the  19th  of  May,  1841,  Theodore  Parker  addressed  the 
congregation  gathered  at  the  settlement  of  Rev.  Charles 
C.  Shackford,  on  "  the  transient  and  permanent  in  Chris- 
tianity." The  wide  "impression  made  by  this  discourse 
was  due  in  part  to  its  qualities  of  thought  and  style ;  but 
still  more  to  its  bringing  the  most  radical  questions  of  crit- 
ical theology  directly  before  the  popular  mind,  and  appeal- 
ing on  them  to  the  popular  judgment, — we  must  add,  the 
confident  and  warmly  religious  tone  of  that  appeal.  Hith- 
erto, miracles  would  seem  to  have  been  tacitly  assented 
to  on  both  sides,  as  marking  the  line  of  division  between 
Christian  belief  and  whatever  lay  outside.  Now,  the 
'wonderful  works  ascribed  to  Jesus  were  suddenly,  nay, 
ofTensively,  brought  to  the  level  of  those  performed  by 
such  errant  theosophists  as  Apollonius  of  Tyana,  while  his 
divine  generation  was  compared  to  that  of  Hercules,  son  of 
Jove.  And  all  this,  in  seeming  unconsciousness  of  the 
shock  which  such  comparison  must  give. 


THEODORE   PARKER.  211 

These  things  it  is  necessary  to  mention,  because  they 
counted  far  more  than  argument  in  the  angry  reaction 
that  followed.  That  sharply  reactionary  temper  prevailed, 
in  a  large  majority  of  the  Unitarian  body,  almost  to  the 
time  of  Theodore  Parker's  death ;  and  it  has  only  been 
soothed,  since,  by  a  mood  of  religious  thought  to  which 
the  question  of  miracles  itself  is  no  longer  essential  but 
incidental.  "  Now  we  have  a  Unitarian  orthodoxy!"  was 
Channing's  comment,  in  anticipation  of  the  debate  that 
followed.  Of  its  later  effect  the  following  testimony,  pub- 
lished in  1889,  has  been  accepted  without  denial  or  dis- 
pute :  that,  respecting  the  miracles  of  the  New  Testament, 
"thousands  among  us  receive- them  with  the  same  faith, 
comfort,  and  reverence  as  of  old ;  but  not  one  of  us  thinks 
of  defining  the  line  of  Christian  fellowship  by  them,  not 
one  of  us  would  stake  a  single  point  of  his  own  religious 
faith  upon  them,  not  one  of  us  appeals  to  them  as  argu- 
ment for  the  spiritual  truth, — at  most,  as  w^hat  that  *  truth 
as  it  is  in  Jesus '  may  help  us  to  accept."' 

This  great  change  of  general  opinion  could  not  possibly 
be  anticipated  then.  Tlie  controversy,  as  it  followed,  w^s 
in  great  part  a  battle  in  the  dark,  for  lack  of  mutual  under- 
standing of  the  terms  employed.  To  set  his  position  more 
plainly  before  the  public,  Mr.  Parker  expounded  it,  the 
succeeding  winter,  in  a  series  of  five  lectures,  which  ap- 
peared in  the  spring  of  1842,  enlarged  into  a  thick  volume, 
as  a  "  Discourse  of  Matters  Pertaining  to  Religion."  This 
book  is  probably  the  best,  certainly  it  has  proved  far  the 
most  effective,  exposition  of  his  style  of  religious  thought. 
With  great  ardor  of  conviction,  generous  confidence  in 
the  power  of  naked  truth,  la\ish  illustration  from  literary 
sources,  and  noble  wealth  of  rhetoric,  it  disarmed  by  no 
reticence — nay,  rather,  exasperated  by  needless  affronts — 

1   "  Unilarian  Review"  for  Jamiaiy,   1889,  p.   16. 


212  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  ix. 

the  angry  prejudice  already  raised  against  its  author,  whom 
opposition  now  forced  into  a  far  wider  field  of  influence 
than  any  denominational  boundaries  could  permit. 

The  death  of  Channing,  just  at  this  turning-point  of  our 
history,  removed  one  bond  of  peace.  He  was  in  doubt 
whether  to  call  Parker  a  Christian,  but  at  least  esteemed 
and  loved  him  as  a  friend.  Sharp  lines  of  separation 
began  now  to  be  drawn.  These  showed  first  in  the  with- 
( holding  of  pulpit  exchanges,  which  then  more  than  now 
were  the  accepted  test  of  fellowship — an  inconvenient  one, 
since  they  suggested,  if  they  did  not  imply,  the  right  to 
be  heard  before  an  audience  to  which  one  might  be  neither 
asked  nor  welcome.  Besides,  as  was  aptly  said  at  the  time, 
the  objection  felt  to  these  exchanges  was  not  all  on  the 
conservative  side.  The  earliest,  and  surely  a  quite  gratui- 
tous, bitterness  occasioned  by  the  controversy  thus  grew 
out  of  a  mere  custom  or  convention,  which  would  be  sub- 
mitted to  in  no  other  walk  of  life,  and  at  this  day  is  hardly 
even  understood.  To  avoid  that  token  of  fraternity  or  to 
withhold  it  was  then  counted  a  personal  affront. 

Another   step    of   separation   was   suggested,    but   was 

never  carried  out.      It  was,   that    Mr.    Parker   should   be 

compelled,  either  by  direct  exclusion  or  by  moral  pressure, 

to    retire    from    membership   in   the    Boston   Association. 

The  subject  was  formally  debated  in  his   presence   at   a 

meeting  held  in  January,  1843.      When  he  was  charged 

with  holding  a  position  outside  of  Christianity,  he  replied 

\  that  he,  on  the  contrary,  accepted  Christianity  as  "  abso- 

i  lute  religion  "  ;  and  demanded,  if  any  did  not  so  regard  it, 

i  whether  they  held  it  to   be  more  or  less  than   absolute 

>  religion,  and  if  more,  then  what  must  be  added  to  absolute 

religion   to   make   it  Christianity!'     The  obvious  answer 

1  He  appears  never  to  have  defined  quite  clearly  the  meaning  of  the  phrase 
"  absolute  religion."     Thus  he  once  wrote,  "  If  to-niorrovv  I  am  to  perish 


THE  BOSTON  ASSOCIATION.  21  3 

would  be,  that  Christianity  is  absokite  religion  as  testified 
by  certain  witnesses,  embodied  in  certain  customs  and  in- 
stitutions, and  vouched  by  a  special  Divine  authority, 
through  which  evidences  it  becomes,  .in  fact,  valid  and 
eflfectual  for  us.  Discussion  on  this  line  seems  not  to  have 
been  taken  up.  Through  much  variance  and  some  sharp- 
ness of  opinion  appearing  in  his  own  account  of  the  debate, 
yet  the  common  feeling,  as  he  describes  it,  was  generous 
and  even  tender.  "  The  sharp  arrows,"  says  Mr.  Froth- 
ingham,  in  narrating  this  incident,  "  fell  harmless  to  the 
ground;  the  flushed  faces  became  placid,  the  angry  looks 
died  away."  Should  the  Association  exercise  its  clear 
right  of  dismissal,  wrote  Mr.  Parker,  afterwards,  "  I  will 
never  complain ;  but,  so  long  as  the  world  standeth,  I  will 
not  withdraw  voluntarily  while  I  consider  rights  of  con- 
science at  issue.  To  withdraw  voluntarily  would  be  to 
abandon  what  I  think  a  post  of  duty."  He  never  did 
withdraw,  and  never  was  dismissed. 

One  other  test  of  fellowship  remained.  At  the  end  of 
1844,  being  just  returned  from  a  year's  stay  in  Europe, 
Mr.  Parker  came  in  order  of  course  to  preach  the  "  Thurs- 
day Lecture  "  at  the  First  Church  in  Boston.  This  was 
an  institution  dating  from  early  colony  days,  and  in  times 
of  public  stir  was  an  occasion  of  much  local  importance. 
Tradition  tells  of  a  diligent  hearer  who  walked  weekly  from 
Newburyport,  thirty-five  miles,  to  listen  and  then  to  pon- 
der upon  the  discourse  during  his  homeward  tramp.  It 
was  at  first  a  stated  serxice  of  the  minister  of  the  First 
Church,  but   had   come  by  custom  to  be   taken   in    turn 

utterly,  then  I  shall  take  only  counsel  for  to-day,  and  ask  for  qualities  which 
last  no  longer.  I  shall  care  nothing  for  future  generations  of  ininikind  ;  I 
shall  know  no  higher  law  ;  morality  will  vanish,  and  expediency  will  take  its 
place ;  courage  for  truth's  sake,  for  love's  sake,  will  be  a  thing  no  longer 
heard  of."  A  Stoic  would  have  said,  "  If  to-morrow  I  am  to  perisli  utterly, 
at  least  I  will  keep  my  faith  in  virtue  to-day."  This  latter,  surely,  is  the 
nearer  to  "  ahsolute  reli"ion." 


2  14  THE    UNn^ARIANS.  [Chap.  ix. 

by  the  members  of  the  Boston  Association,  who  generally 
(we  may  suppose)  held  it  more  a  duty  than  a  privilege. 
To  Theodore  Parker  it  was  both.  Before  a  crowded  and 
unwonted  audience  he  spoke,  with  the  same  freedom  as 
before,  on  "  the  relation  of  Jesus  to  his  age  and  the  ages." 
The  former  offense  was  renewed,  and  the  pastor  of  the 
First  Church  was  officially  notified  that  on  any  future 
occasion  the  doors  of  the  church  would  be,  at  need,  forci- 
bly closed  to  Mr.  Parker.  This  compelled  a  revival  of  the 
question  of  his  membership  in  the  Boston  Association, 
which  made  the  topic  of  discussion  at  three  protracted 
sessions — this  time,  in  his  absence.  Two  of  its  members 
(as  I  recall  its  debates^)  were  prepared  to  vote  for  his  ex- 
clusion, pure  and  simple.  The  general  feeling  expressed 
was,  however,  kind  and  just.  Old  memories  of  protest 
against  "  the  exclusive  system  "  made  a  return  to  it  im- 
possible. But  it  was  urged  that  some  step  was  necessary, 
to  avoid  a  possible  public  scandal  in  contending  for  right 
of  entrance  to  the  church.  The  simplest  course  was  taken 
by  requesting  the  minister  of  the  First  Church  (Dr.  Froth- 
ingham)  to  resume  into  his  own  charge  the  conduct  of  the 
lecture.  The  lecture  continued  for  some  months  to  be 
kept  up  under  the  new  conditions,  and  was  then  dropped 
by  common  consent. 

The  one  point  gained  was  that,  contrary  to  a  very 
general  expectation,  the  Unitarian  body  neither  dissolved 
nor  parted  into  two  fragments  on  the  threatened  line  of 
division.  Controversy,  misunderstanding,  mutual  distrust, 
could  not  be  avoided.  For  more  than  half  a  generation 
there  was  a  grave  loss  to  the  body  in  the  angry  withdrawal 
or  neutral  adhesion  of  many  of  its  younger  and  bolder 
members, — a  grave  loss  to  its  visible  unity  and  its  moral 

1  There  are,  besides  myself,  two  survivors  of  the  Association  as  it  existed 
then,  Drs.  Cyrus  A.  Bartol  and  George  E.  Ellis. 


THE  BERRY  STREET  CONFERENCE.  215 

Strength.  The  erasure  from  its  calendar  of  several  of  its 
brightest  names  may  show  how  great  a  power  of  growth 
and  active  energy  it  forfeited.  But  the  question  at  stake 
was  more  fundamental  and  difficult,  the  religious  tradi- 
tion and  habit  involved  were  more  deeply  rooted,  than 
many  of  its  younger  adherents  could  possibly  understand. 
Besides,  the  line  of  division  just  then  drawn  across  the 
path  of  advance  was  sure  to  be  come  up  with  and  over- 
passed by  increasing  numbers,  as  the  course  of  opinion 
should  tend  in  the  direction  long  foreseen.  There  re- 
mained the  greatly  outweighing  advantage,  to  the  religious 
body  as  such,  of  keeping  unbroken  its  historic  continuity, 
with  whatever  gain  might  come  to  it  of  future  opportunity. 
The  angry  sense  of  desertion  on  one  part,  or  of  injustice 
on  the  other,  is  long  forgotten.  The  memory  of  divided 
feeling  that  once  seemed  past  restoring  is  held  out  visibly, 
to  those  of  a  younger  day,  in  the  portraits  of  Channing 
and  Parker  that  serenely  face  each  other  in  our  gallery  of 
worthies,  and  in  the  memorial  volumes  of  their  writings, 
issued  by  the  Unitarian  Associations  of  both  America  and 
Britain.^ 

In  the  long  division  of  opinion  that  ensued,  which  so 
greatly  crippled  the  forces  of  the  Unitarian  body,  three/ 
customs  especially  aided  to  prevent  its  falling  apart,  and, 
to  save  it  for  whatever  service  it  might  afterwards  be  capa- 
ble to  effect.  The  first,  and  perhaps  the  most  effective, 
was  what  is  still  known  as  the  "  Berr}-  Street  Conference  "  : 
an  annual  gathering  of  liberal  ministers,  who  were  first 
invited  to  meet  at  Dr.  Channing's  vestry,  just  off  Federal 
Street.     This  was  and  is  a  strictly  professional  gathering, 

1  T  have  given  in  "  Our  I-iheral  Movement  "  a  more  extended  study  (from 
personal  knowledge)  of  Tlieodore  Parker's  character  and  work  than  could 
be  admitted  here,  preceded  by  a  chapter  (in  tlie  "  fifteen  years  of  contro- 
versy "  which  connect  his  work  with  Channing's.  Me  died  in  Florence, 
Italy,  May  10,  i860,  a  little  before  completing  his  fiftieth  year. 


2i6  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  ix. 

without  witness  and  without  reporter;  having,  therefore, 
the  full  freedom  of  private  conversation  on  all  matters  of 
professional  interest.  It  was,  too,  a  meeting  of  gcntlonen, 
in  which  the  amenities  of  friendly  talk  were  rarely  broken. 
The  rules  of  debate  were  of  the  simplest ;  the  topic  of  it 
was  introduced  by  a  more  or  less  formal  address,  which 
might  touch  upon  any  aspect  of  the  question  of  the  hour ; 
in  the  conduct  of  it  the  most  advanced  radical  was  on  ex- 
actly equal  terms  with  the  gravest  conservative  ;  the  fervor 
of  a  rapt  idealist,  like  William  Henry  Channing,  might 
call  out  the  equal  fervor  of  an  ardent  denominational 
leader,  hke  Dr.  Gannett ;  one  who  had  sturdily  urged 
that  the  Unitarian  body  must  and  ought  to  be  divided 
might  find  himself  on  the  same  bench  with  those  very 
ones  he  would  exclude,  or  next  neighbor  to  one  who 
anxiously  dreaded  lest  they  might  be.  In  such  an  alem- 
bic as  that,  of  friendly  and  free  however  warm  discus- 
sion, not  many  years  were  needed  to  habituate  those 
unlikest  in  opinion  to  accept  the  fact  of  a  deeper  ground 
of  union. 

A  like  process  went  on  in  the  public  gatherings  of 
"Anniversary  Week,"  at  the  end  of  May,  where  all  mat- 
ters of  common  interest  appealed  to  the  common  judg- 
ment, and  where  the  formal  discussions  of  business  were 
followed  by  the  cheerful  informality  of  the  Thursday's 
Festival,  which  just  about  this  time  (1843)  became  a  yearly 
custom.  As  the  circle  of  fellowship  widened  out  with  the 
denominational  growth,  it  took  in  an  increasing  majority 
of  those  whose  opinions  were  not  sharply  defined  on  either 
side,  thus  diluting  the  asperities  of  local  feeling;  and  a 
process  of  adjustment  went  on,  hardly  noticeable  from 
year  to  year,  but  in  the  course  of  half  a  generation  mak- 
ing all  aware  that  the  mental  atmosphere  was  changed. 


THE  AUTUMNAL    CONVENTION.  217 

Besides,  other  topics  of  hotter  and  keener  interest  than 
theological  debate  brought  in  other  lines  of  sympathy  or 
dissent.  Conservative  and  radical  might  change  places, 
when  the  discussion  shifted  to  the  temperance  platform 
or  the  antislavery  crusade.  And  in  course  of  time,  as  all 
the  moral  forces  of  the  community  came  to  be  enlisted 
to  sustain  the  nation  itself  in  its  life-and-death  struggle 
with  Secession,  theological  differences  and  ^dienations  dis- 
appeared in  the  fiercer  heat  of  battle. 

These  influences,  all  tending  to  reconciliation  and  better 
common  understanding,  were  helped,  again,  by  the  custom 
which  began  at  Providence,  in  1841,  of  the  "Autumnal 
Convention,"  held  alternate  with  the  annual  gathering  in 
Boston,  in  places  so  wide  apart  as  Baltimore,  Buffalo, 
Montreal,  and  Bangor.  The  exaggeration  and  heat  of 
local  controversy  were  thus  tempered  in  the  widening 
sense  of  a  common  interest  and  a  common  life.  Difference 
of  place  was  favorable  to  diversity  and  freedom  of  expres- 
sion. It  was,  above  all  other  times,  the  period  of  moral 
and  religious  oratory.  A  new  spirit  went  into  the  discus- 
sions, taking  occasionally  a  tone  of  the  finest  and  most 
moving  eloquence  which  the  cause  of  a  free  theology  has 
ever,  perhaps,  called  forth.  Occasions  such  as  these  did 
as  much  as  any  single  thing  to  invigorate  the  somewhat 
languid  sense  of  one  organic  life,  and  prepare  the  way  for 
that  broader  view  of  religion  which  must  be  had  if  the 
liberal  body  was  to  survive  at  all  under  the  changed  con- 
ditions, h^iftcen  years  of  controversy,  which  had  once 
seemed  likely  to  rend  it  in  pieces,  led  in  fact  to  a  revival 
of  denominational  unity  and  vigor,  such  as  would  never 
have  been  thought  possible  by  its  founders. 

With  this  simplest  of  denominational  equipment,  and 
under  general  guidance  of  the  American  Unitarian  Asso- 


2i8  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  ix. 

ciation  ("A.  U.  A."),  founded  on  the  25th  of  May,.  1825/ 
the  growth  in  numbers,  though  slow,  was  very  constant. 
Washington  had -been  added  to  the  list  of  churches  in 
1820,  Cincinnati  and  Louisville  in  1830,  Buffalo  in  1831, 
New  Orleans  in  1833,  St.  Louis  in  1834,  Chicago  in  1836. 
At  the  date  we  have  now  reached  (i860),  218  of  the 
churches  still  on  the  rolls  were  already  in  existence.  Of 
these,  something  more  than  half  were  originally  local  par- 
ishes, founded  under  the  polity  of  the  Puritan  colonists, 
and  dating  before  the  War  of  the  Revolution.  Of  the 
remainder,  ninety  were  established  between  the  years  1820 
and  i860 — that  is,  after  the  line  of  separation  from  the 
orthodox  Congregationalists  had  been  drawn ;  and  of 
these,  again,  just  one  half  date  from  the  later  period,  after 
1840,  while  interior  difference  and  controversy  were  most 
active.  Especially  we  note  that  the  widest  spread  of 
Unitarianism,  geographically,  took  place  during  these 
twenty  years  of  divided  counsel,  when,  outside  of  New 
England,  new  societies  were  first  established  in  Michigan, 
Iowa,  Wisconsin,  Kansas,  Indiana,  California,  and  Canada. 
This  spread  was  due  chiefly,  no  doubt,  to  the  agencies  of 
the  A.  U.  A.,  which  had  shown  its  hand  liberally  from  the 
start,  sending  a  gift  of  six  hundred  dollars  in  1827  to 
friends  in  British  India.  Its  resources  in  money  were 
extremely  small,  rarely  amounting  to  as  much  as  $10,000 
in  a  single  year.      But  from  the  beginning  it  gave  direc- 

1  By  a  chance  coincidence,  on  the  same  year  and  day  with  tlie  British  and 
Foreign  Unitarian  Association,  in  London.  The  following  have  been  the 
presidents  of  the  A.  U.  A.  : 

1825-36,  Aaron  Bancroft,  D.D.,  1862-65,  R.  V.  Stebbins,  D.D., 

1837-44,  Ichabod  Nichols,  D.D.,  1865-67,  Hon  J.  G.  Palfrey, 

1S44-45,  Joseph  Story,  LL.D.,  1867-70,  Hon.  T.  D.  Eliot, 

1845-47,  brville  Dewey,  D.D.,  1870-72,  Hon.  Henry  Chapin, 

1847-51,  E.  S.  Gannett,  D.D.,  1872-76,  Hon.  John  Wells, 

1851-5'^,  S.   !■:.  T.r-tlirop.  D.D.,  1876-85,  PI.  P.  Kidder,  Esq., 

1858-59,  v..  W.  Hall,  D.I).,  1885-  ' ,  lion.  Gcc  S.  Hale. 

1859-62,  E.  H.  Hedge,  D.D., 


LACK  OF  SECTARIAN    TEMPER.  219 

tion,  and  such  aid  as  it  could,  to  the  work  of  "  church 
extension,"  on  the  modest  scale  befitting  a  religious  body- 
that  still  refused  to  regard  itself  as  a  sect,  and  hence  lacked 
the  zeal,  energy,  and  ambition  of  a  sect. 

How  many,  in  fact,  of  those  still  affiliated  with  it,  whose 
names  were  even  recorded  in  its  lists,  would  accept  the 
title  "  Unitarian,"  it  is  impossible  to  say.  Its  most  hon- 
ored religious  leader,  Channing,  and  its  most  eminent  crit- 
ical scholar,  Norton,  were  among  a  large  proportion  of 
its  best  early  representatives — at  least  ten  to  one,  thinks 
Dr.  Ellis — who  protested  strongly  against  accepting  any 
sectarian  name,  especially  one  so  narrowed  and  warped  by 
controversy.  To  them  the  movement  they  embarked  in 
was  towards  a  larger  intellectual  and  religious  life,  free 
of  the  restraints  imposed  by  a  doctrinal  system  they  dis- 
allowed;  and  it  was  justified  to  their  mind  by  scrupulous 
study  and  exposition  of  the  Christian  Scriptures — as  far  as 
possible  from  the  form  of  "  free  religion  "  it  seemed  tend- 
ing to.  Anything  like  denominational  machinery,  for  the 
propagating  of  particular  opinions,  such  men  thoroughly 
disliked ;  all  the  more  when  freedom  of  interpretation, 
through  younger  minds  inspired  by  a  strange  philosophy, 
seemed  to  compromise  them  also,  by  claiming  alliance 
with  them  under  a  title  they  disowned.  So  that  any- 
thing like  large  increase  of  corporate  strength  to  the 
moxement  was  blocked  by  the  very  men  who  had  been 
its  early  inspirers  and  guides. 

It  happened,  accordingly,  that  among  its  later  best 
known  leaders  some  of  the  ablest,  the  boldest,  and  the 
most  influential  were  of  those  wHo  came  into  its  ranks  as 
new  converts,  in  mature  life,  with  experience  gained  and 
powers  ripened  by  religious  methods  not  its  own,  without 
either  the  sympathies  or  the  restraints  they  w^ould  have 
felt   if  bred   in   its  tradition.      Of  itself,  a  religious  move- 


220  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  ix. 

ment  whose  motive  force  is  mainly  critical  is  in  danger  of 
becoming  frigid  and  sterile  when  the  glow  of  controversy 
has  faded  out  of  it.  The  Unitarian  movement  has  by  no 
means  escaped  this  charge,  either  in  others'  esteem  or  in 
its  own.  As  one  result,  its  power  of  self-propagation  has 
often  lain  more  with  those  who  have  been  trained  in  other 
communions,  and  have  entered  this  with  the  joy  of  a  new 
intellectual  freedom,  than  with  children  of  its  own  blood, 
critics  rather  than  champions  of  its  cause.  The  freeborn 
are  sometimes  less  jealous  of  their  liberty  than  those  who 
have  obtained  it  "with  a  great  sum."  Dr.  Dewey's  name 
stands  eminent  at  the  head  of  such  loyal  converts,  without 
whose  fresh  zeal  the  movement  itself  might  perhaps  have 
slackened,  leaving  the  banner  of  its  faith  to  be  borne  by 
other  hands  under  another  name. 

Two  monuments  of  the  period  now  reviewed  may  be 
noted  here.  The  Divinity  School  in  Meadville,  Pa.,  was 
founded  by  the  Huidekoper  family  in  1844,  and  was  con- 
ducted for  twelve  years  under  the  most  devoted  and 
energetic  administration  of  Dr.  Rufus  P.  Stebbins.  Its  re- 
sources have  since  been  greatly  strengthened  and  enlarged. 
Antioch  College,  at  Yellow  Springs,  O.,  originally  a  school 
sustained  by  the  "  Christian  Connection,"  came  about  1850 
under  Unitarian  control ;  and  for  eight  years  the  Hon. 
Horace  Mann,  after  relinquishing  the  seat  in  Congress  that 
fell  to  him  upon  the  death  of  John  Ouincy  Adams,  gave 
to  it,  at  times  without  pay,  and  literally  at  the  cost  of  his 
life,  the  crowning  work  of  his  great  career  in  the  cause 
of  education.  Up  to  the  time  of  these  two  foundations 
Unitarianism  was  still  an  exotic,  or  a  work  of  frontier 
pioneering,  in  the  West.  And  these  must  count  chief 
among  the  influences  that  gave  it,  at  this  time,  some  faint 
claim  to  regard  itself  as  having  already  the  promise  and 
the  potency  of  a  larger  life. 


CHAPTER   X. 


THE    NEW    UNITARIANISM. 


During  the  years  of  the  Civil  War  questions  of  doctrine 
or  sect  were  overshadowed  by  the  vaster  national  interests 
at  stake.  The  slow  average  growth  of  the  Unitarian  body 
went  on  about  as  before.  But  it  is  honorably  true  of  all 
religious  bodies  in  our  country  that  their  best  activities 
were  drawn  away  to  other  channels.  Their  life  became 
an  element  in  the  nation's  life,  and  was  given  freely  to 
serve  it  or  to  save  it.  Of  the  Unitarians  it  may  only  be 
said  that  they  contributed  their  share  with  others,  and  that 
in  some  ways  they  were  enabled  to  render  special  service 
of  their  own. 

Of  the  record  in  the  "  Harvard  Memorial  Biographies  " 
a  large  proportion,  at  least  forty  out  of  ninety-five,  give 
names  and  memories  that  belong  distinctly  to  the  line  of 
tradition  we  have  been  endeavoring  to  trace.  These  were 
high  examples  of  a  consecrated  heroism  on  the  field  of 
battle,  or  in  camp  and  hospital.  In  civic  life  the  service 
was  equally  great.  The  imperial  State  of  California,  with 
perhaps  all  our  Pacific  Coast,  was  saved  to  the  Union, 
said  General  Winfield  Scott,  "  by  a  young  man  of  the 
name  of  King."  The  aged  general  was  perplexed  to  un- 
derstand the  story  he  so  repeated.  What  it  meant  was 
this:  Early  in  i860,  Thomas  Starr  King — then,  at  the  age 
of  thirty- five,  of  great  and  growing  reputation  as  a  preacher, 
a  i^opular  lecturer  of  wide  and  brilliant  fame,  of  gracious 
and  wonderful  charm  as  a  companion,  of  beaming  wit  and 

221 


222  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  x. 

humor,  greatly  beloved  both  as  minister  and  as  friend — 
was  called  from  Boston  to  the  Unitarian  pulpit  of  San 
Francisco.  Here,  under  pressure  of  the  conflict  he  now 
took  part  in,  the  marvelously  clear  intelligence  and  bright 
talent  of  the  popular  speaker  de\-eloped  into  the  noblest 
cloc]uence  of  the  political  orator,  liefore  this  time,  a  crit- 
ical and  somewhat  fastidious  judgment  of  men  and  things, 
with  a  certain  vein  of  self-distrust,  had  held  him  back  from 
giving  himself,  heart  and  soul,  to  the  great  moral  conflict 
of  the  day.  Now  that  this  conflict  became  one  with  that 
on  which  the  life  of  the  nation  itself  was  staked,  a  new 
capacity  of  eloquent  passion  was  found  in  him.  He  be- 
came the  favorite  and  most  eff'ective  of  popular  debaters. 
He  was  the  ready  champion  at  every  large  public  gather- 
ing. His  voice  was  in  demand  at  political  centers  widely 
scattered.  Within  four  years  he  had  literally  given  his 
life  away  in  that  magnificent  service ;  and  he  died  on  the 
4th  of  March,  1864,  a  little  past  the  age  of  thirty-nine. 

A  work  like  this  was  done  in  Missouri  by  Dr.  William 
G.  Eliot,  of  St.  Louis.  He  had  begun  in  1834  the  task, 
which  seemed  almost  hopeless  then,  of  building  up  a 
frontier  church  in  that  great  city.  Nearly  thirty  years  of 
work,  followed  up  with  extraordinary  sagacity,  persist- 
ency, and  courage,  and  with  rare  singleness  of  devotion 
to  all  the  higher  interests  of  that  community,  had  given 
him  a  position  of  influence  which  led  a  citizen  there  to 
say,  "  As  much  as  any  other  man  ?  Dr.  Eliot  has  done 
ten  times  as  much  as  any  other  ten  men  to  keep  Missouri 
true  to  the  Union  as  a  free  State!"  Before  his  death,  in 
1887,  he  had  long  been  most  widely  known  as  the  chan- 
cellor of  Washington  University,  an  institution  which  he 
may  almost  be  said  to  have  himself  created. 

Possibly  more  brilliant  and  even  more  essential  than 
these  two  was  the  service  rendered  by  Dr.  Henry  Whit- 


IIEXRY   WIIITXEY  BELLOIVS.  223 

ney  Bellows,  of  New  York,  in  creating  and  directinj^  the 
National  Sanitary  Commission.  This,  under  the  organiz- 
ing skill  of  its  secretary,  Frederick  Law  Olmsted,  became 
a  powerful  though  unofficial  arm  of  the  national  govern- 
ment. It  has  its  own  voluminous  history  as  part  of  the 
annals  of  that  time.  But  its  real  work  grew  out  of  the 
personal  qualities  that  Dr.  Bellows  brought  to  it :  his 
cheery,  buoyant,  indefatigable  temper;  his  wide  knowledge 
of  the  world,  which  put  him  on  equal  terms  with  any 
whom  he  might  meet,  of  whatever  civil  or  military  rank, 
and  might  have  made  him  as  eminent  a  diplomatist  or 
statesman  as  he  was  an  orator  of  power ;  his  eager,  gener- 
ous, and  powerful  sympathies,  going  out  from  a  nature 
glowing  with  the  warmest  human  afTection,  and  always 
expanding  into  some  new  field  of  service;  a  temper  by 
nature  dominating  and  masterful,  with  an  equal  fidelity 
to  the  cause  he  served,  that  made  him  at  need  one  of  its 
humblest  and  most  hard-worked  ministers.  Throughout 
the  war  there  was  not  a  moment  when  his  hand  and  voice 
were  not  ready  at  every  call ;  and  after  the  war  he  was 
the  indispensable  leader  of  his  own  religious  communion, 
opening  out  to  it  almost  or  quite  all  the  new  paths  of 
action  in  which  it  has  labored  since.  Full  of  high  courage 
as  he  was,  self-reliant  in  act  and  eloquent  of  speech,  no 
man  was  more  cordial  and  unreserved  in  common  friend- 
ship, or  of  a  more  genuine  humility  of  .spirit  and  generos- 
ity in  judgment,  while  serving  in  the  ranks  with  others. 

These  three  names  may  stand  to  represent  the  signal 
and  eminent  service  done  at  this  time  by  beloved  leaders 
of  the  Unitarian  body.  Three  other  names  may  illustrate 
what  was  done  by  some  of  its  ministers  in  other  ways, 
whether  in  the  army  ranks,  or  as  chaplains  in  field  or 
camj:*.  Augustus  H.  Conant,  of  Geneva,  111.,  who  as  a 
sturdy  emigrant  had  gone  to  the  prairie  from  Vermont,  and 


224  ^^^    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  x. 

had  been  turned  towards  the  Hberal  ministry  about  1840 
by  the  chance  finding  of  a  Unitarian  tract,  died  while 
serving  heroically  as  chaplain  on  the  terrible  field  near 
Murfreesboro,  in  the  first  days  of  1863.  Arthur  B.  Fuller, 
of  Watertown,  Mass.,  brother  of  Margaret  Fuller  and  lit- 
erary editor  of  her  writings,  volunteered  to  join  in  a  des- 
perate charge  at  Fredericksburg,  and  was  shot  down  in 
the  street,  December  14,  1862.  Frederick  N.  Knapp,  a 
man  singularly  gifted  alike  with  sweetness  of  nature  and 
practical  intelligence,  and  a  scholar  of  fine  mathematical 
ability,  ministered  personally  to  more  than  twenty  thou- 
sand sick,  wounded,  or  footsore  soldiers  while  in  charge  of 
the  Soldiers'  Home,  near  Washington,  and  had  the  unique 
distinction  of  being  the  one  man,  who  had  borne  neither 
sword  nor  musket,  admitted  to  the  military  organization 
of  surviving  veterans  of  the  war.  At  his  burial,  in  Janu- 
ary, 1889,  the  shops  in  Plymouth  were  closed,  and  busi- 
ness was  suspended,  as  for  a  day  of  public  mourning. 

One  other  service  of  that  time,  more  modest,  claims 
a  word  of  mention.  When,  early  in  1862,  the  "Sea 
Islands  "  off"  the  coast  of  South  Carolina  were  captured  by 
the  national  fleet,  a  colony  of  teachers,  under  the  govern- 
ment authority,  went  to  take  in  hand  the  instruction  of 
the  negroes  left  behind  on  the  plantations.  The  work  was 
continued  there  till  the  end  of  the  war ;  and,  when  Charles- 
ton was  occupied  in  the  spring  of  1865,  the  schools  for 
both  blacks  and  whites  were  at  once  organized  (under 
appointment  of  James  Redpath)  by  Prof.  William  P'rancis 
Allen,  one  of  the  same  corps  of  instructors,  who  was  after- 
wards long  known  in  his  connection  with  the  University 
of  Wisconsin,  representing  there  and  elsewhere  the  oldest 
and  best  traditions  of  the  Unitarian  faith,  till  his  death,  in 
December,  1889. 

At  a  .special  meeting  of  the  A.  U.  A.  held  December 


THE  NATIONAL    CONFERENCE.  22  5 

7,  1864,  it  was  resolved  to  call  "a  convention,  to  consist 
of  a  pastor  and  two  delegates  from  each  church  or  parish 
in  the  Unitarian  denomination,  to  meet  in  the  city  of  New 
York,  to  consider  the  interests  of  our  cause,  and  to  insti- 
tute measures  for  its  good."  This  convention — the  first 
formally  representative  meeting  of  that  body  in  this  coun- 
try— was  held  on  the  5th  and  6th  of  the  following  April, 
and  was  organized  as  a  "  National  Conference  of  Unitarian 
and  other  Christian  Churches."  Its  sessions  were  held 
regularly  in  September  or  October  of  the  alternate  years 
from  1866  to  1886,  the  last  seven  being  at  Saratoga.  To 
avoid  disturbance  from  the  biennial  political  campaign,  the 
date  was  changed,  the  Conference  meeting  in  1889,  1891, 
and  1894,  while  in  1893  it  yielded  to  the  claim  of  an  "  In- 
ternational Congress  of  Unitarians  "  held  in  Chicago,  in 
connection  with  the  "  World's  Parliament  of  Religions,"  as 
a  feature  in  the  great  Columbian  Exposition  of  that  year. 
The  National  Conference  is  understood  to  have  been 
both  suggested  and  organized  by  the  mind  of  Dr.  Bellows, 
who  was  at  this  time  the  t)nc  unquestioned  leader  of  the 
body  he  belonged  to.  His  experience  during  the  war,  con- 
firmed by  a  few  months'  stay  in  California  in  1864,  had 
deepened  his  conviction  that  the  popular  religion  of  the 
country  was  rapidly  coining  to  be  both  liberal  in  theology 
and  non-sectarian  in  spirit.  He  apparently  looked  for  the 
sudden  unfolding  of  a  consciousness,  in  tiie  national  mind 
at  large,  of  one  religious  life  shared  in  such  a  spirit ;  and 
the  duty  of  the  h(nir  seemed  to  him  to  be  the  preparation 
for  its  coming.  The  great  World's  Parliament  of  1893 
has  been  sometimes  spoken  of  as  the  realizing  of  that 
dream.  The  religion  that  should  thus  come  to  pass  would 
not  take  the  name  "  Unitarian,"  which  properly  signifies 
an  opinion,  not  a  faith.  It  would  probably  exist  under 
many  names  and  forms;  but  its  life  would  be  in  harmony 


226  THE    UNITARIANS.  [CnAi>.  x. 

with  that  faith  as  he  conceived  it,  not  sectarian,  not  de- 
nominational. The  organized  form  would  be  needed  for 
practical  service  only:  it  should  not  signify,  not  even  sug- 
gest, a  creed.  His  own  opinion,  however  devoutly  held, 
was  as  little  the  test  of  such  an  order  of  faith  as  any  other 
man's  opinion.  For  himself,  he  was  an  eager  champion 
of  the  Unitarian  mode  of  belief  as  such.  It  would,  he 
thought,  do  more  than  any  other  to  define  the  type  of  a 
coming  American  religion.  But  in  holding  it  his  associ- 
ates should  bear  in  mind  that  they  held  it  ///  trust,  as 
pledge  of  some  greater  thing. 

In  thinking  thus,  however,  Dr.  Bellows  clung  with  great 
warmth  of  affection  to  the  spirit,  the  belief,  and  even  the 
phrases  of  the  elder  piety  which  had  nourished  his  own 
life.  He  never,  in  fact,  lost  a  certain  humility  of  spirit  in 
the  presence  or  in  the  memory  of  his  own  religious  guides, 
which  checked,  sometimes  (it  would  seem)  capriciously,  the 
great  boldness  and  vigor  of  his  generous  self-assertion. 
His  hand  is  probably  to  be  traced  in  the  wording  of  those 
very  phrases  of  the  preamble  which  brought  the  only  dis- 
cord in  the  counsels  of  the  time — as  if  they  somehow 
implied  a  creed,  and  so  gainsaid  his  own  words  in  asser- 
tion of  perfect  mental  freedom.  The  preamble  reads : 
"  Whereas  the  great  opportunities  and  demands  for  Chris- 
tian labor  and  consecration  at  this  time  increase  our  sense 
of  the  obligations  of  all  disciples  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
to  prove  their  faith  "  by  self-denial  and  devoted  service, 
"therefore,"  etc.  It  was  in  vain  to  urge  that  these  words 
are  in  their  form  not  a  creed,  but  the  statement  of  a 
moti\'e ;  that  (as  declared  in  the  tenth  article)  "they  are 
no  authoritative  test  of  Unitarianism,  and  are  not  intended 
to  exclude  from  our  fellowship  any  who,  while  differing 
from  us  in  belief,  are  in  general  sympathy  with  our  pur- 
poses and  practical  aims."      Danger  lurks  even  in  a  pre- 


JAMKS   FRKEMAX   CI.ARKI:.  22/ 

amble.  To  some  there  seemed  a  liint  of  sectarian  narrow- 
ness in  the  name  "  Christian."  "  May  we  not,"  they  asked, 
"consort  reHgiously  with  freethinkers  or  with  Jews?" 
To  others  the  words  appeared,  if  not  a  creed,  at  least  to 
imply  condescension  or  disparagement  towards  those  "  dif- 
fering from  us  in  belief,"  tolerating  their  fellowship  rather 
than  frankly  greeting  it.  And  thus,  while  the  National 
Conference  pro\ed  incomparably  the  most  important  con- 
sulting body  the  Unitarians  have  ever  known, — absolutely 
free  in  counsel,  far  more  effective  than  any  other  agency 
for  harmony  and  working  force, — its  first  effect  was  to  stir 
a  secession  of  what  might  well  have  proved  a  most  valu- 
able ally. 

The  issue  was  fought  out  at  the  first  adjourned  session 
of  the  Conference,  in  what  was  whimsically  called  "  the 
battle  of  Syracuse."  The  foremost  advocate  of  the  offend- 
ing phrase  was  James  P'reeman  Clarke,  who  gave  to  the 
words  their  most  generous  interpretation,  but  was  equally 
tenacious  of  the  Christian  tradition  they  express.  His 
early  experience  of  seven  years'  devoted  frontier  service 
in  Kentucky,  at  the  beginning  of  his  ministry  ;  his  still 
earlier  alliance  with  the  origin  of  the  Transcendental 
movement,  and  intimate  friendship  with  its  leaders;  his 
fine  intelligence,  enriched  by  letters,  art,  society,  and 
travel ;  his  rare  capacity  of  religious  sympathy,  which 
made  it  his  special  task  and  service  to  illustrate  the  har- 
monies of  widely  varying  faiths, — all  these  might  seem  to 
pledge  him  to  the  most  advanced  assertions  of  intellect- 
ual liberty.  But  his  studies  of  speculative  theology  had 
pledged  him  still  more  strongly  to  seek  in  a  transfigured 
Christian  dogmatics  the  final  and  absolute  statement  of 
religious  truth,  and  to  find  in  its  terms  the  best  setting 
forth  of  facts  objectively  real,  so  that  he  did  not  willingly 
part  with  any  of  its  phrases.     Besides,  there  showed  in 


228  THE    UNITARIAXS.  [Chap.  x.  ■ 

him  at  times  a  combative  temper — finely  exhibited  in 
some  recent  phases  of  political  debate — with  a  courage  of 
attack  or  defense,  generally  disguised  under  a  kindly  cour- 
tesy of  manner,  that  bore  him  promptly  to  the  front  in  any 
war  of  words.  In  the  debate  at  Syracuse  he  easily  carried 
the  overwhelming  assent  of  the  audience  he  addressed, 
already  inclined  that  way.  The  words  of  the  preamble 
stood,  accordingly,  as  a  manifesto  of  adhesion  to  historic 
f  Christianity.  But,  as  a  counter-manifesto,  the  "  Free 
I  Religious  Association"  came  presently  into  being;  and 
'  the  Unitarian  body  lost,  for  the  time  at  least,  the  support 
that  would  have  been  given  it  by  the  great  moral  and  in- 
tellectual force  represented  (among  those  no  longer  living) 
in  the  wayward,  versatile,  and  delightful  fancy  and  the 
fine  religious  and  poetic  genius  of  John  Weiss  (1818-79), 
or  in  the  grave  yet  glowing  and  intense  ethical  spirit  of 
David  Atwood  Wasson  (1823-87). 

Meanwhile,  the  former  doctrinal  issues  had  been  com- 
pletely overshadowed  and  dwarfed  by  the  one  great 
tragedy  of  the  Civil  War.  They  were,  in  parliamentary 
phrase,  "  laid  upon  the  table,"  and  they  have  never  been 
taken  from  it  since.  It  appears  to  be  impossible  for  a 
later  generation  to  understand  how  grave  those  issues 
were  once  supposed  to  be.  "  All  the  battles  of  theology," 
Dr.  Putnam  had  once  said  in  his  pulpit,  "  are  drawn  bat- 
tles;  all  its  questions  are  open  questions."  With  his  cus- 
tomary vigor  he  had  once  maintained  the  argument  of 
the  "  Supernaturalist  "  party;  but  before  his  death  he 
surprised  his  congregation  by  assuring  them  that  that 
argument  did  not  touch  the  substance  of  Christianity. 
The  mental  change  thus  brought  about  in  one  of  the  most 
conservative  minds  of  the  body  was  mainly  due  to  two 
causes.  One  was  the  order  of  scientific  thought  that 
came  in  with  the  study  of  Darwin  and  Spencer,  by  which 


FREDERIC  IIENRV  HEDGE.  229 

he,  with  all  intelligent  persons,  had  been  strongly  attracted. 
The  other  was  the  working  out  of  a  vein  of  religious 
philosophy  which  may  be  traced,  in  part,  to  the  influence 
or  the  survival  of  Transcendentalism.  To  interpret  and 
assimilate  that  philosophy  made  now  the  special  task  of 
the  intellectual  leaders  in  the  Unitarian  movement,  of 
whom  Dr.  Hedge  was  conspicuously  the  chief.  His  vol- 
ume entitleji^  Reason  in  Religion"  was  by  far  the  ablest 
and  most  influential  expression  of  the  order  of  thought 
here  indicated.  It  was,  in  fact,  to  many  minds  a  guide- 
book of  the  process  by  which  dogma  passes  through  met- 
aphysics on  the  way  to  become  pure  symbol  of  a  truth  of 
mental  experience. 

Frederic  Henry  Hedge  (1805-90)  had  the  singular 
advantage,  for  those  days,  of  a  school  training  as  a  boy  in 
Germany,  so  that  the  German  idiom,  in  thought  as  well 
as  speech,  was  to  him  a  second  mother-tongue.  With 
high  rank  as  a  general  scholar,  he  was  widely  familiar  with 
the  literature  of  metaphysics.  He  was  master  of  a  grave 
and  studied  eloquence,  with  a  diction,  at  times,  of  rare 
poetic  beauty.  A  faithful  and  laborious  service  of  thirty- 
six  years  in  his  profession  had  put  him  as  an  intellectual 
leader  as  clearly  at  the  head  of  the  liberal  jjulpit  in  Amer- 
ica as  his  illustrious  contemporary  James  Martineau  stood 
in  England.  He  had  been  educated  in  a  period. when 
rhetorical  form  counted  greatly  more  than  now  towards  a 
writer's  general  eminence, — a  period  when  all  the  best  in- 
tellectual work  among  us  was  shaped  by  the  exigencies  of 
popular  speech  rather  than  by  the  severe  logic  of  the 
schools ;  when  even  grave  chapters  of  history,  theology, 
or  metaphysics^  became  a  series  of  effective  popular  ad- 
dresses, rather  than  steps  in  a  methodical  essay.  The 
argument    of   "  Reason    in    Religion  "    is   contained    in    a 

'   For  example,  in  Dr.  Walker's  inagniriccnl  Lowell  LieUircs  of  1S42. 


230  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  X. 

sequence  of  discourses,  each  rounded  and  complete  in 
itself;  and  thus  it  develops  a  single  order  of  thought  with 
culminating  effect,  but  with  little  of  logical  coherence. 
It  may  be  contended,  indeed,  that  the  argument  was  the 
more  readily  grasped  by  those  to  whom  it  was  addressed, 
and  so  was  the  more  effective,  because  delivered  in  this 
form ;  because,  too,  it  was  here  and  there  cast  in  phrases 
that  stamped  themselves  on  the  memory  with  the  pun- 
gency and  point  of  epigram.  The  alternative  "  Reason 
or  Rome  "  tells  more  pithily  than  a  labored  paragraph  the 
drift  of  modern  speculation.  "  Heaven  is  the  sum  of 
ascending  spirits,  hell  the  sum  of  descending  spirits,"  sets 
forth  the  law  of  retribution,  as  he  conceived  it,  better  than 
many  an  argumentative  essay.  "  A  movement  is  strong 
by  what  it  includes,  an  organism  by  what  it  excludes," 
shows  more  clearly  than  a  detailed  explanation  the  strength 
and  weakness  of  the  body  he  served  loyally  until  his  death. 
Almost  unconsciously,  the  tone  and  method  were  taken 
up  by  a  whole  generation  of  inquiring  minds,  and  have  be- 
come, on  the  side  of  pure  thought,  the  most  potent  factor 
in  determining  the  quality  of  later  Unitarian  doctrine. 

The  service  rendered  by  Dr.  Hedge  in  this  direction 
was  the  more  effective  because  rendered  in  large  part 
through  the  "  Christian  Examiner,"  of  which  he  became 
editor  in  1857.  He  sought  to  make  of  it  an  independent 
journal  of  religion  and  letters ;  less  than  ever,  the  organ 
of  any  one  school  of  theological  opinion.  Many  of  the 
essays  just  described  appeared  first  in  its  pages;  and  the 
educating  work  begun  in  it  under  his  direction  was  con- 
tinued in  it  by  other  hands.  During  the  war  its  course 
was  strongly  controlled  b}^the  turn  of  public  events,  when 
it  aimed  to  interpret  or  to  influence  the  steps  of  that  moral 
and  political  revolution  going  on  under  the  surface  of  the 
struggle,  and  when  political  or  social  etliics  were  of  more 


WIDENED  RANGE    OE  ACTION 


231 


account  to  us  than  ecclesiastical  life.  In  the  Ljeneral  ex- 
pansion of  mind  that  followed  the  war,  when  the  field  of 
acti(^n  so  suddenly  widened  out  before  the  Unitarian  bod\-, 
the  "Examiner"  was  transferred  from  Boston  to  New 
York;  and  here,  under  Dr.  Bellows's  guidance,  it  aimed 
to  do  the  work  at  once  of  a  denominational  organ  and  of 
an  independent  journal,  absolutely  open  and  free  to  the 
advanced  criticism  of  the  day.  In  this  efifort  it  lost  the 
cordial  support  of  one  part  without  securing  the  full  confi- 
dence of  the  other;  and,  though  sustained  with  fair  suc- 
cess as  a  private  enterprise,  it  was  absorbed  into  the  fresh 
and  more  popular  magazine  "  Old  and  New,"  at  the  end 
of  1869.1 

Under  the  new  impulse  now  given,  the  Unitarian  body 
widened  out  on  a  scale  and  with  a  vigor  which  nothing  in 
its  earlier  history  had  led  one  to  look  for  in  it.  The  yearly 
fund  at  the  service  of  the  A.  U.  A.  rose  at  one  step  from 
a  sum  under  ten  thousand  dollars  to  more  than  a  hundred 
thousand,  under  the  sagacious  counsel  of  Mr.  Henry  P. 
Kidder,  and  the  energetic  effort  of  its  president,  Dr.  Rufus 
P.  Stebbins.  From  this  time  on  it  enjoyed  for  five  years 
the  service  of  its  beloved  and  devoted  secretary,  Charles 
Lowe,  who  in  1874,  a  few  months  before  his  death,  estab- 
lished the  "  Unitarian  Review,"  to  be  an  ally  and  inter- 
preter of  its  work.2  Among  the  first  results  of  this  ex- 
pansion, the  policy  was  adopted  of  planting  outposts  at 
important  university  towns.  This  was  done  first  in  1865 
at  Ann  Arbor,  Mich.,  where  the  State  University  had 
gathered  a  body  of  students  larger  than  that  at  anv  other 


1  A  full  statement  of  the  circumstances  and  reasons  of  this  change  m.iy  be 
jnd  in  the  "  Unitarian  Review"  of  April,  18S7,  p.  363. 

2  The"  Unitarian  Review"  was  discontinued  at  the  end  of  iSqi.  Tlie 
next  year  "The  New  WorM  "  was  established  as  an  ort^an  of  the  hifjher 
liberal  scholarship,  and  has  been  aided  by  m.any  contributions  from  foreign 
writers. 


fou 
2 


232  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  x. 

American  college.  Such  outposts  now  exist  in  at  least 
twelve  different  States,  making  a  most  serviceable  propa- 
ganda in  a  wide  field  of  infiuence.  This  effect  was  espe- 
cially marked  in  the  case  of  Ann  Arbor,  through  the 
exceedingly  able  courses  of  class  instruction  given  by 
Rev.  Charles  H.  Brigham  (1820-79),  who  retired  from  his 
charge,  broken  in  health,  in  1877.  In  Wisconsin,  also,  a 
rapid  and  very  strong  liberal  development  within  the  last 
fifteen  years — consecrated  now  by  the  bright  name  of 
Henry  Doty  Maxson,  who  died  in  1892 — was  due  to  the 
same  wise  policy. 

In  October,  1877,  was  held  in  Springfield,  Mass.,  the 
first  session  of  the  "  Ministers'  Institute,"  for  what  would 
now  be  called  "  university  extension  "  in  the  field  of  theol- 
ogy. The  institute  was  gathered,  by  invitation  and  under 
the  general  direction  of  Dr.  Bellows,  to  do  for  professional 
students  that  part  of  the  work  of  a  religious  body  most 
apt  to  be  overlooked  under  the  press  of  routine  work  or 
neglected  in  its  widening  missionary  enterprises.  The 
term  "  theology  "  was  taken  in  its  very  widest  sense,  to 
include  all  knowledge  that  bears  on  the  advance  of  relig- 
ious thought.  The  lines  followed  at  this  gathering  were 
carefully  planned  beforehand,  marking  out  the  four  divi- 
sions of  the  field,  to  each  of  which  it  was  at  first  intended 
that  one  full  day  should  be  devoted ;  and  a  doubt  arising 
on  the  subject  was  determined  by  throwing  the  doors  open 
to  whoever  might  choose  to  enter.  No  discussions  have 
in  fact  proved  more  attractive  to  the  outside  public  than 
those  which  it  was  first  thought  to  reserve  for  scholars' 
hearing.  The  topics  were  these  :  i.  The  higher  criticism 
(so  called)  of  the  Bible,  illustrated  at  this  time  in  studies 
of  the  Old  Testament  after  the  school  of  Kuenen ;  2. 
Development  of  doctrine,  as  shown  in  the  transition  from 
the  Old  Testament  to  the  New,  and  in  a  criticism  of  the 


THE   MIXISTERS'    INSTITUTE.  233 

Pauline  writings;  3.  A  discourse  on  Evolution  by  Prof. 
John  \y.  Draper,  of  New  York,  supplemented  by  a  paper 
from  Dr.  Thomas  Hill  on  Erasmus  Darwin,  including  a 
critique  of  certain  points  in  the  later  Darwinism ;  4.  Re- 
ligious and  scientific  Ethics,  especially  as  applied  to 
social  problems.  A  philosophic  essay  on  "  Personality  " 
by  Dr.  Hedge  is  included  in  one  of  the  later  volumes  of 
his  published  writings;  and  a  brilliantly  characteristic 
religious  discourse  was  deli\'ered  by  Rev.  William  Henry 
Channing. 

Among  the  names  just  mentioned  are  those  of  two  men, 
of  very  marked  and  peculiar  quality,  who  now  for  the  last 
time  (it  is  believed)  addressed  a  large  representative  gath- 
ering of  their  own  religious  body.  William  Henry  Chan- 
ning (1810-84)  was  the  preacher  of  most  fervid  and  purely 
inspired  genius  of  the  bright  dawn  of  Transcendentalism : 
capable  at  moments  of  an  eloquence,  electric  and  superb, 
such  as  is  rarely  heard  from  human  lips ;  a  mystic,  whose 
glowing  speech  seemed  often  to  soar  in  a  range  where 
thought  less  rapt  could  scarcely  follow,  yet  in  simijlicity 
and  sweetness  of  personal  intercourse  a  child ;  desiring  to 
walk  in  humblest  ways  and  do  lowliest  service,  making  his 
New  York  pulpit  a  popular  platform  of  human  rights  and 
duties,  and  toiling  in  the  modest  task  of  conducting  a 
cheap  journal  of  Christian  socialism ;  w  ho  came  home 
from  an  admired  career  in  England,  that  he  might  ser\e 
his  country  in  any  open  way  throughout  the  war,  whether 
to  idealize  and  consecrate  the  struggle  as  chaplain  of  the 
House,  or  minister  to  the  sick  and  wounded  men  crcnvded 
in  the  hospitals  at  Washington,  where  his  own  church 
was  the  first  to  be  put  to  that  pious  use.  Thomas  Hill 
(1818-91)  was  a  man  conservative  in  theology  and  ordi- 
narily reticent  of  speech,  in  whom  religious  humilit\'  of 
spirit   and   intellectual   self-assertion   made  a  coml)ination 


234  ^^^^    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  x. 

very  marked ;  a  man  of  rare  versatility  in  the  ranges  of 
accurate  science,  being  a  mathematician  of  high  rank,  a 
naturaHst  widely  trained,  and  a  mechanician  of  extraordi- 
nary skill ;  seeking  his  companionships  among  gifted  men 
of  science  rather  than  in  the  ranks  of  his  own  profession, 
to  the  great  loss  of  younger  men  in  it  who  ought  to  have 
known  him  better;  chiefly  eminent  in  the  work  of  higher 
education,  as  president  of  Antioch  College  and  afterwards 
of  Harvard  University.^ 

These  groups  and  names  show  the  meaning  and  intent 
of  the  Ministers'  Institute  at  its  first  founding.  The  name 
of  Professor  Draper,  in  particular,  shows  how  widely  its 
doors  were  open  to  topics  and  teachers,  as  well  as  hearers, 
quite  outside  the  purely  professional  and  even  the  Chris- 
tian field.  As  later  representing  faiths  not  Christian, 
Rabbi  Gottheil,  of  New  York,  argued  in  an  extended  ad- 
dress at  Providence,  in  1879,  that  Jesus  was  never  rejected 
by  his  own  people,  but  was  the  victim  of  political  passion 
and  terror;  Protap  Chunder  Mozoomdar,  from  Calcutta, 
speaking  for  the  Brahmo  Somaj,  illustrated  in  a  most 
eloquent  address  at  Lowell,  in  1883,  the  mingled  good  and 
ill  of  Christianity  as  found  in  British  India;  Felix  Adler, 
in  1887,  from  the  point  of  view  of  ethical  culture  discoursed 
with  his  fine  insight  on  what  have  been  hitherto  ret^arded 
as  phases  of  "  Christian  ethics."  Thus  the  Institute,  while 
in  one  way  an  offshoot  of  strictly  Unitarian  growth,  has  in 
its  intellectual  outlook  been  quite  beyond  the  range  of  any 
denominational  interest.  It  has  often  heard,  or  sought  to 
hear,  the  voice  of  men  from  other  Christian  bodies ;  and 
it  has  always  solicited  the  teaching  of  science,  that  knows 
nothing  of  party  lines  in  the  religious  world.  Its  sessions 
have  generally  been  held  on  alternate  years  with  those  of 

1  .Some  of  liis  personal  and  mental  traits  are  described  in  the  "  Unitarian 
Review"  for  December,  1891,  pp.  463-470. 


''TRANSCENDENTAL    WILD    OATS.''  235 

the  National  Conference,  to  which  it  is  in  some  sense  sup- 
plementary, but  more  truly  an  independent  ally.^ 

So  wide  a  welcome  to  great  diversities  of  opinion,  with 
so  feeble  a  restraining  power  at  the  center,  opened  the 
way,  inevitably,  to  considerable  looseness  of  speculation, 
and  even  to  a  certain  lawlessness,  inviting-  scandal,  in  some 
men's  theory  and  practice  of  the  religious  life.  Under 
such  influences,  Emerson  became  a  far  more  potent  leader 
of  thought  than  either  Channing  or  Parker:  Emerson, 
with  his  brilliant  defiance  of  conventionalism  in  the  treat- 
ment of  religious  topics,  but  without  the  austere  purity  of 
tone  and  the  profound  ethical  feeling  which  in  him  were 
the  winnowed  growth  of  the  finest  Puritan  ancestry.  'The 
phrase  "transcendental  wild  oats,"  happily  employed  by 
Louisa  Alcott  to  describe  her  recollections  of  certain  rue- 
ful experiments  at  farming  in  Utopia,  might  well  be  ap- 
plied to  much  that  masqueraded  as  Christian  doctrine, 
especially  in  remoter  districts,  where  the  restraints  of  a 
graver  tradition  were  less  observed.  These  escapades 
were  oftenest  innocently  meant,  and  harmless;  such  eff"er- 
vescence  as  Kingsley  has  described  in  "  Yeast."  Some- 
times, however,  they  were  the  token  or  forewarning  of  a 
moral  peril ;  since,  in  the  rapid  external  spread  of  Unita- 
rianism  (or  what  called  itself  such),  it  would  happen  that 
supposed  converts  from  more  rigid  creeds  proved  to  be 
irresponsible  adventurers,  who  took  the  name  as  a  mere 
cloak  of  license :  such  converts,  we  may  fancy,  as  those 
whom  Paul  encountered  at  Corinth.  How  to  deal  with  this 
new  symptom,  without  authority  of  ecclesiastical  discipline, 
and  with  nothing  of  the  check  that  would  be  given  or 
promised  by  the  simplest  external  rule  of  faith,  became  a 

^  Its  meetings  were  lield  in  1879  at  Providence,  in  1S81  at  Princeton, 
Ma.s.s.,  in  1883  at  Lowell,  in  1885  at  Newport,  in  1887  at  Princeton,  in  i888 
at  Worcester,  in  1890  at  Salem,  in  1892  at  Newton. 


236  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  \. 

problem  of  some  difficulty.  Either  of  those  expedients 
would  affront  the  best  Unitarian  tradition;  while  to  wait 
the  slow  effect  of  time,  and  the  wholesome  working  out 
of  spiritual  affinities,  might  in  the  view  of  many  seem  too 
grave  a  peril  to  be  risked. 

The  question  so  offered  was  brought  to  the  front  in 
the  spring  of  1886,  in  a  small  pamphlet  entitled  "The 
Issue  in  the  West."  The  Western  Conference,  embracing 
almost  the  whole  valley  region  of  the  Central  States,  was 
far  the  broadest  in  extent,  and  made  up  of  far  the  most 
numerous  and  diverse  elements,  of  all  the  local  bodies 
allied  with  the  National  Conference.  Moreover,  there  was 
a  sense  of  local  importance,  and  a  common  ground  of 
character  and  interest,  which  (while  the  National  Confer- 
ence had  no  treasury  or  agencies  for  separate  action) 
seemed  to  require  for  the  West  funds  and  executive 
machinery  of  its  own.  Thus  the  question,  as  now  brought 
forward,  was  limited  to  that  one  field.  The  points  it  raised 
must  be  decided  by  the  Western  Conference  at  its  annual 
session,  without  concert  of  action  in  the  East.  This  ses- 
sion was  held  at  Cincinnati,  in  May,  1886. 

The  solution  proposed,  when  reduced  to  its  simplest 
terms,  took  the  form  of  a  resolve,  "  that  the  primary  ob- 
ject of  this  Conference  is  to  diffuse  the  knowledge  and 
promote  the  interests  of  pure  Christianity."  Now,  with- 
out question,  the  body  of  the  conference  was  made  up  of 
ardent  theists  and  devout  Christians^accepting  their  own 
definition  of  those  terms.  But  to  put  the  assertion  of 
either  position  in  the  organic  act  that  constituted  the  con- 
ference itself,  so  as  to  make  it,  really  or  seemingly,  a  con- 
dition of  its  membership,  appeared  to  the  majority  a  vio- 
lation of  the  absolute  mental  freedom  which  was  a  vital 
feature  in  the  organization.  Theism,  which  to  some  minds 
is   implied   in   every   phrase   declaring   a   moral    order   in 


Till-:    WESTERN  ISSUE.  237 

human  life,  would  surely,  when  asserted  as  dogma,  lead  to 
troublesome  and  distracting  definitions,  alien  to  the  pur- 
pose had  in  view.  The  name  "  Christian  "  might  seem  to 
cast  a  stigma  upon  some  of  their  own  number,  even,  of 
Jewish  or  other  non-Christian  antecedents.  The  proposal 
was  accordingly  met  by  the  counter-resolve,  adopted  by  a 
large  majority,  that  the  conference  "  conditions  its  fellow- 
ship on  no  dogmatic  tests,  but  welcomes  all  who  wish  to 
join  it  to  help  establish  truth,  righteousness,  and  love  in 
the  world."  These  two  counter-positions,  thus  narrowly 
distinguished,  define  what  was  known  as  "  the  Western 
Issue."  The  action  at  Cincinnati  was  supplemented  the 
following  year,  at  Chicago,  by  a  pretty  extended  "  state- 
ment of  things  commonly  believed  among  us,"  which  was 
a  generous  and  eloquent  setting  forth  of  a  far  more  full 
and  elevated  code  of  belief  than  could  possibly  have  been 
included  in  the  terms  of  any  formal  creed.  The  difference 
and  even  alienation  occasioned  by  this  act  came  (as  was 
hoped)  to  an  end  in  1892,  when  it  was  resolved  that  the 
conference  "  hereby  declares  it  to  be  its  common  aim  and 
purpose  to  promulgate  a  religion  in  harmony  with  the 
foregoing  preamble  and  statement." 

Among  the  objects  effected  at  the  sessions  of  the 
National  Conference  have  been  the  planning  and  urging 
of  .special  tasks  too  large  and  costly  to  be  properly  taken 
into  the  lines  of  current  expenditure.  These  sessions 
came  to  be  very  numerously  attended,  the  formal  delega- 
tion having  been  much  more  than  doubled  by  the  friendly 
throng ;  and  tliey  have  been  occasions  of  great  social  de- 
light as  well  as  religious  im]:)ression.  The  spirit  of  the 
gathering  has  responded  quickly  and  warmly  to  appeals 
that  could  have  reached  general  sympathy  in  no  other 
way ;  while  the  lines  of  action  it  recommended  have  been 
followed  up  with  a  generosity  which  the  elder  Unitarians 


238  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  x. 

were  wont  to  bestow  only  on  objects  outside  their  own 
communion.  A  college,  a  hospital,  a  denominational 
school,  or  religious  enterprise  other  than  Unitarian  might 
look  for  their  bounty,  and  seldom  looked  in  vain ;  but 
they  shunned  even  the  appearance  of  vrhat  might  be 
charged  against  them  as  working  for  sectarian  ends.^ 
Now,  however,  with  some  little  demur,  they  gave  heed 
to  them  of  their  own  household.  Costly  churches  have 
been  built  by  common  effort  in  Washington,  New  York, 
and  elsewhere ;  a  Loan  Fund  of  considerable  amount  aids 
the  same  work  in  a  wider  field;  provision  has  been  made 
for  the  divinity  schools  in  Cambridge  and  Meadville,  in 
sums  not  varying  far  from  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
dollars  each ;  a  still  larger  amount  has  been  devoted  to 
construct  a  building  ample  for  denominational  or  general 
uses  in  Boston ;  help  has  been  given  to  the  straitened 
churches  of  Hungary  and  France,  and  to  the  Unitarian 
College  of  Transylvania ;  a  missionary  work  of  instruction 
has  been  set  on  foot  in  Japan,  at  an  annual  cost  equal  to 
the  entire  denominational  revenue  of  thirty  years  ago. 

These  enterprises  have  felt  the  check,  doubtless,  of  old 
prejudice  and  of  a  prudence  sometimes  anxious ;  but  they 
have  been  far  less  embarrassed  by  theological  differences 
or  mutual  distrust  than  might  be  feared.  The  last,  in  par- 
ticular, was  a  new  departure  into  a  field  doubtful  and  un- 
explored. A  fund  of  moderate  amount  given  for  such  use 
had  for  nearly  thirty  years  maintained  a  single  missionary, 
Rev.  Charles  H.  A.  Dall,  in  Calcutta,  where  his  fine  schol- 
arship and  devoted  service,  till  his  death,  in  1886,  were 
of  no  effect  to  gather  a  native  church,  but  were  spent  in 
greatly  needed   tasks  of  primary  instruction,  made  after- 

1  "Unitarians  have  given  millions  to  colleges,  academics,  libraries,  pliilan- 
thropic  and  charitable  institutions,  from  whom  it  would  have  been  impossible 
to  draw  a  single  dollar  for  the  Association." — G.  E.  Ellis,  "  A  Half-Century 
of  the  Unitarian  Controversy,"  Introduction,  p.  xiv. 


M/SS/O.V  COLLEGE   IX  JAPAN.  239 

wards  needless  (it  was  thought)  by  the  improved  gov- 
ernment schools.  In  1887  Hon.  Horace  Davis,  of  San 
Francisco  (afterwards  president  of  the  University  of  Cali- 
fornia), was  strongly  impressed,  during  a  stay  of  some 
months,  in  eastern  Asia,  by  the  seeming  ineffectiveness  of 
Christian  missions  founded  on  dogma,  and  by  the  apparent 
openness  of  the  native  mind  to  influences  which,  without 
dogmatism  or  controxersy,  should  convey  the  purely  ethi- 
cal and  spiritual  teachings  of  Christianity.  In  these  he 
saw  the  opportunity  and  duty  of  the  Unitarian  body, 
which  had  so  completely  outgrown  the  controversial  stage 
of  religious  thought.  Chiefly  through  his  urgency,  by 
public  address  or  written  appeal,^  the  matter  first  gained 
hearing.  The  effort  which  followed  had  from  the  begin- 
ning the  cordial  welcome  of  those  whom  it  addressed. 
Within  six  months  the  Japanese  public  read  in  its  nati\e 
speech,  diffused  through  its  own  new.spapers  of  widest 
circulation,  the 'exposition,  argument,  or  appeal  addressed 
to  it  by  aid  of  young  students  who  had  had  their  college 
training  in  America.  After  two  years'  trial  the  enterprise 
was  expanded  to  a  college  of  theology  and  moral  science, 
having  at  the  present  time  six  instructors — three  being 
native,  three  sustained  from  the  United  States — besides 
the  friendly  cooperation  of  liberal  scholars  from  Germany, 
and  of  others  from  faiths  not  Unitarian.  The  college  is 
just  now  (1893)  seeking  aid  to  build  a  permanent  struct- 
ure for  its  educational  work,  that  which  it  occupied  hav- 
ing been  destroyed  in  a  conflagration  at  Tokio. 

Except  for  the  new  denominational  building,  the  largest 
sum  raised  among  Unitarians  for  a  single  object  has  been 
an  endowment  fund  of  something  over  $140,000,  com- 
pleted in  1878,  for  the  Harvard  Divinity  School.  The 
school,  though  hitherto  held  and  controlled  as  well  as 
1  Sec,  in  particular,  tlic  "Unitarian  Review"  for  November,  1887. 


240  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  x. 

wholly  sustained  by  them,  was  at  once  declared  unde- 
nominational, to  conform  with  the  general  policy  of  the 
university.  Both  instructors  and  students  hold  their  con- 
nection with  it  quite  independent  of  any  theological  ante- 
cedents or  tests.  Such  differences  are  lost,  or  overlooked, 
in  the  common  study  of  "a  scientific  theology."  This 
term  includes  the  higher  (or  historic)  criticism  of  the  Bible, 
the  comparative  study  of  religions,  intellectual  philosophy, 
and  scientific  ethics,  together  with  such  allied  courses  of 
instruction  as  other  departments  of  the  university  may 
offer.  The  school  is  understood  to  be  especially  strong 
in  Oriental  learning  (including  Hebrew,  Arabic,  and  As- 
syrian), and  in  the  study  of  religious  or  pliilosophical  sys- 
tems of  the  East.  Among  its  students  are  nearly  always 
found  several  natives  of  Japan,  with  a  considerable  number  of 
graduates  from  other  schools  of  theology.  The  "  regular  " 
members  of  the  last  entering  class  (1893)  number  twenty. 
The  university  has  thus  amply  atoned  for  whatever  in- 
justice may  have  been  done,  in  its  name,  in  the  early  years 
of  the  century.  Further,  in  keeping  with  this  reconstruc- 
tion of  the  Divinity  School,  the  College  Church,  estab- 
lished under  President  Kirkland  and  necessarily  Unitarian 
in  its  affiliations,  was  discontinued  in  the  summer  of  1882. 
In  its  place  a  system  of  religious  instruction  was  now  de- 
vised, and  has  been  carried  out  with  signal  success,  in 
which  the  ordinary  religious  exercises,  of  both  Sundays 
and  week-days,  are  conducted  by  preachers  of  high  stand- 
ing chosen  each  year  from  at  least  three  of  the  leading 
Protestant  bodies;  while  Jew,  Catholic,  and  Hindoo  have 
been  invited  on  special  occasions  to  address,  and  have 
addressed,  the  students  in  Appleton  Chapel.  It  is  by 
their  own  ecclesiastical  rule  that  Catholic  preachers  are 
debarred  from  taking  their  place  with  others,  as  solicited, 
in  the  ordinary  exercises  of  the  college  pulpit. 


RECENT  NECROLOGY.  24 1 

Contemporary  with  the  changes  now  recorded,  the  Uni- 
tarian body  has  experienced  the  loss,  within  the  past 
twenty  years  or  a  httle  more,  of  almost  all  its  well-known 
leaders  who  had  survived  from  the  earlier  period.  Dr. 
Gannett,  long  its  most  devoted  champion,  and  one  of  the 
most  eloquent  of  its  preachers,  perished  in  a  railroad  dis- 
aster at  Revere  in  187 1.  President  Walker,  its  weightiest 
logician  and  strongest  teacher  of  ethics,  died,  at  the  age 
of  eighty,  in  1874;  Dr.  Putnam,  its  preacher  of  most  brill- 
iant and  sustained  local  reputation,  in  1877,  at  seventy 
years.  Dr.  Bellows,  its  most  sagacious  organizer,  its  best 
beloved  leader,  and  its  most  distinguished  representative 
before  the  larger  public,  died  at  sixty-eight ;  Dr.  Dewey, 
perhaps  its  profoundest  religious  genius,  and  the  eloquent 
Nestor  of  its  pulpit,  at  eighty-eight;  also,  Ralph  Waldo 
Emerson,  in  his  eightieth  year,  whose  great  and  unique 
fame  in  a  wider  field  had  never  made  him  a  stranger  to 
his  early  associates — these  three  in  1882.  Dr.  Stebbins,  to 
whose  courage  and  zeal  were  due,  more  than  to  any  other, 
its  wider  propagation  in  the  West,  died  in  1886;  Dr.  Eliot, 
who  as  its  first  and  noblest  missionary  carried  out  its 
pi(^ncer  work  on  a  grand  scale  in  the  Mississippi  Valley, 
in  1887  ;  James  P'reeman  Clarke,  through  whom  its  gospel 
had  a  broader  and  kindlier  reception  in  the  popular  heart 
than  through  any  other,  in  1888;  Dr.  Pledge,  eminently 
chief  among  those  who  led  it  towards  the  larger  intellectual 
interpretation  of  its  word,  in  1890;  Prof.  Andrew  P.  Pea- 
body,  who  more  than  any  otlier  made  its  religious  spirit  to 
be  felt  and  welcomed  in  the  broad  circle  of  other  Chris- 
tian bodies,  in  1893,  at  eighty-two,  from  the  effect  of 
accident.  Among  its  elder  teachers.  Dr.  P\irness  alone 
remains,  in  his  ninety-second  year,  the  lifelong  friend  of 
Emerson  and  Hedge,  whose  heart  is  too  young  and  his 
.spirit  too  joyous  to  admit  any  of  the  sad  epithets  of  age, 


242  THE    UNITARIAXS.  [Chap.  x. 

true  through  the  evil  days  of  half  a  century  ago  to  his 
high  faith  in  human  freedom,  the  beloved  and  genial  inter- 
preter of  the  Christian  gospel  record  to  an  entire  genera- 
tion. Thus  that  body  has  come,  almost  suddenly,  to  feel 
that  the  period  of  controversy  and  of  preparation  is  past, 
and  that,  for  whatever  of  gain  or  loss,  a  New  Unitarian- 
ism  holds  the  field. 

As  at  present  organized,  the  Unitarian  body  is  repre- 
sented, first,  by  its  larger  central  agencies,  the  American 
Unitarian  Association  (now  a  corporate  body  controlled 
by  delegates  from  the  churches)  and  the  National  Confer- 
ence, meeting  at  stated  intervals  for  counsel  and  com- 
munion ;  by  twenty-live  local  conferences,  made  up  of 
delegates  representing  groups  of  churches,  and  meeting 
commonly  several  times  in  the  year  (three  of  these  are 
on  the  Pacific  Coast,  and  one  covers  the  extensive  field  of 
the  Southern  States) ;  by  five  "  Alliances,"  or  other  bodies 
for  Christian  work,  organized  and  controlled  by  women ; 
by  thirty-two  organizations  formed  for  various  special  ob- 
jects, local  or  general,  under  the  names  of  "  club,"  "  guild," 
"  association,"  or  the  like,  besides  those  professional  or 
educational.  These  all  illustrate,  in  various  ways,  the 
great  change  that  has  come  to  pass  since  the  time  when 
Unitarianism  meant  what  was  merely  theological,  profes- 
sional, or  controversial. 

The  change  has  brought  it  at  least  to  attempt  the  prac- 
tice of  a  religion  wholly  free  of  ecclesiasticism  or  dogma ; 
in  equal  alliance  with  every  form  of  modern  thought  or 
learning;  open  to  criticism  or  to  instruction  from  every 
quarter;  aiming,  without  prejudice  of  discipline  or  creed, 
to  give  its  own  interpretation  of  a  Divine  kingdom  upon 
earth.  Its  historj-  is  the  record  of  its  advance  from  the 
position  of  challenging — often  feebly,  willfully,  and  pas- 
sionately— the  established  creeds  of  Christendom,  towards 


THE  NAME   "  UNITARIAN:'  243 

that  of  accepting,  as  sooner  or  later  it  must  come  to  do 
understandingly,  whatever  may  be  meant  in  the  purely 
scientific  phrase  "positive  religion,"  as  opposed  to  that 
which  is  doctrinal  or  institutional.  As  one  of  its  inter- 
preters has  said,  "  We  have  walked  out  into  the  open  day- 
light, and  for  us  there  is  no  going  back." 

The  name  "  Unitarian "  may  not  seem  adequate  to 
cover  so  large  a  range  and  variety  of  opinion  as  is  here  im- 
plied. It  was  accepted  reluctantly  and  under  strong  pro- 
test by  those  who  led  in  the  religious  movement  it  denotes, 
who  wished  to  be  known  as  belonging,  individually,  to 
the  "liberal  wing"  of  New  England  Congregationalism. 
Many  would  greatly  prefer  that  now.  Esjjecially  the 
name  has  been  held  unfit  to  be  taken  as  a  corporate 
name,  to  describe  a  church,  or  the  larger  communion 
made  up  of  many  churches.  In  fact,  of  the  four  hundred 
and  forty-four  churches  on  the  list  in  1893,  less  than  two 
hundred  (197)  are  known  by  that  name  in  their  proper 
title.  On  its  roll  of  five  hundred  and  ten  ministers  (of 
whom  twenty  are  women)  more  tiian  one  hundred  were 
educated  in  other  forms  of  belief,  and  may  not  be  pre- 
sumed familiar  with  the  Unitarian  tradition,  or  any  way 
attached  to  it.  What  leads  them  to  accept  the  name  is 
the  same  reason  that  prevailed  over  the  objections  felt  at 
first:  not  at  all  that  it  defines  an  opinion  in  which  they 
arc  all  agreed,  but  that  it  denotes  that  very  undefined  and 
expanding  mo\'ement  of  religious  thought,  which  can  be 
interpreted  only  by  a  proper  understanding  of  its  history 
and  antecedents. 

One  chief  value  of  the  name  at  the  present  day  is  that  it 
serves  as  a  symbol,  or  standard,  recognized  by  a  far  wider 
range  of  pe()])lcs,  dialects,  and  minds  than  the  scant  show- 
ing of  its  organized  forces  might  seem  to  promise.  Under 
the  same  title,  and  under  like  general  conditions,  are  gath- 


244  ^-^^    UNITARIAiVS.  [Chap.  x. 

ered  nearly  three  hundred  and  fifty  (344)  congregations 
in  the  British  Islands.  These  are  well  understood  to  rep- 
resent, in  the  main,  that  same  non-dogmatic  form  of  Chris- 
tianity towards  which  the  movement  we  have  traced  has 
been  gradually  led.  What  has  been  said  of  the  Harvard 
Divinity  School  may  be  said  in  almost  the  same  terms  of 
Manchester  New  College,  their  chief  seat  of  instruction, 
now  established  at  Oxford,  which  has  been  made  illus- 
trious in  the  past  by  the  names  of  Kenrick,  Tayler,  and 
Martineau,  and  now  embraces  the  freshest  European  and 
Oriental  learning.  Two  points  are  especially  noticeable 
in  defining  their  present  position :  a  tenacious  loyalty  to 
the  best  traditions  of  English  Unitarian  Dissent,  and  a, 
keen  sympathy  with  that  tendency  in  politics  which  aims] 
at  public  education,  justice,  and  a  better  social  order. 
Under  special  embarrassments,  their  church  life  has  been 
comparatively  cramped  and  feeble ;  but  in  the  wider  field 
they  have  been  honorably  known  as  a  positive  force  in  the 
intellectual  and  moral  sphere. 

In  France  about  two  fifths  of  the  Protestant  body  are 
well  recognized  as  Unitarian,  though  not  formally  sepa- 
rated from  the  rest,  and  without  break  of  the  historic  con- 
tinuity that  links  them  with  old  heroic  memories  of  the 
Reformation.^  Their  two  theological  colleges,  in  Paris  and 
at  Nimes,  with  a  humble  but  very  devout  community  in 
the  Landes  near  Bordeaux,  testify  to  their  learning  and 
their  piety.  Prof.  Bonet-Maury  enumerates,  as  chief  feat- 
ures in  their  work:  (i)  the  faculty  of  Liberal  Theology 
established  at  Paris  in  1877  (to  take  the  place  of  that  at 

1  The  Rev.  Atlianase  Coquerel  {pen-)  spoke  of  himself  to  me,  in  1855, 
as  legitimate  successor  of  the  Huguenot  leaders  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
The  orthodox  majority  is  large  and  dominant ;  but  dissenters  from  its  creed 
have  never  lost  their  place  or  standing  in  tlie  body.  See  an  article  by  Rev. 
Narcisse  Cyr  on  "  The  Reformed  Cluirchcs  of  France,"  in  the  "  Unitarian 
Review"  for  June,  1889,  \->.  518. 


ON   THE    CONTINENT.  245 

Strasburg),  which  "  has  remained  faithful  to  the  Hberal 
principles  of  its  Alsatian  mother,  has  constantly  refused  to 
subscribe  to  the  synod  of  1872,  and  still  preserves  for  its 
pupils  the  independence  of  their  opinions";  (2)  a  relig- 
ious section,  under  Albert  Reville,  in  the  "  Ecole  pratique 
des  hautes  etudes,"  wliich  includes  Catholic,  Jew,  and 
Huddhist  along  with  Protestant  Christians;  (3)  a  liberal 
Press,  whose  most  significant  product  is  the  great  Bible 
commentary  of  Edouard  Reuss,  in  twehe  \olumes,  "  a 
colossal  monument  dedicated  to  the  literary,  moral,  and 
religious  worth  of  the  Scriptures";  (4)  a  lay  organiza- 
tion, or  standing  board,  directed  by  leading  jurists,  which 
"  has  since  1872  supported  the  poorer  and  feebler  churches 
in  the  departments,  and  sheltered  them  from  the  encroach- 
ments and  illegal  attempts  of  the  orthodox  majority  "  ;  (5) 
representative  conferences  held  at  Paris,  Nimes,  or  Mont- 
auban,  which  have  secured  important  advantages  to  the 
liberal  minority,  especially — by  the  division  of  Paris  into 
eight  ecclesiastical  districts— control  of  the  "  Oratoire," 
the  chief  Protestant  church  of  France.  The  names  of 
M.  Waddington  and  Jules  P^erry  are  cited  among  the 
statesmen  who  have  shown  an  active  interest  in  the 
founding  of  institutes  for  free  religious  education. 

Among  other  Continental  nations  the  following  evi- 
dences may  be  given.  The  late  Professor  Chastel,  of 
Geneva,  author  of  the  most  considerable  church  history 
composed  from  the  Unitarian  point  of  view,  was  a  venera- 
ble witness  how  far  that  ancient  city  had  departed  from 
its  older  tradition  and  gone  over  to  the  liberal  name  and 
faith.  In  northern  Italy  an  active  Unitarian  propaganda 
has  for  many  years  been  conducted  by  Professor  Ferdi- 
nando  Bracciforti,  of  the  Polytechnic  college  in  Milan,  and 
has  had  friendly  recognition  from  the  royal  family.  The 
long-established  Unitarian  community  in  Transylvania  still 


246  THE    UNITARIANS.  [Chap.  x. 

exists,  as  one  of  the  important  educational  and  religious 
forces  of  eastern  Hungary.  In  Germany  the  latitude  of 
speculation  admitted  by  the  official  Lutheranism  gives  less 
emphasis  to  the  name  ;  but  several  theologians  of  eminence 
have  both  maintained  cordial  personal  relations  with  Uni- 
tarian scholars  in  America,  and  have  shared  as  collaborators 
in  their  later  work.  The  Dutch  school  of  biblical  criticism, 
so  well  represented  in  Ley  den  by  the  late  Professor  Kue- 
nen,  may  be  said  to  be  fully  naturalized  in  their  later 
teaching;  while  a  large  part  of  the  theological  erudition 
or  speculation  current  in  Continental  schools  would  in 
England  or  America  be  described  simply  as  Unitarian. 

What  effect  this  widening  and  diversifying  of  the  asso- 
ciations belonging  to  that  name  may  have  on  the  work  or 
fortunes  of  the  body  that  has  borne  it  for  the  last  eighty 
years  in  America,  it  would  be  idle  to  conjecture.  As 
many  disclaimed  it  in  the  beginning,  so  there  are  those 
who  think  it  is  already  outgrown  and  should  be  set  aside. 
That  point  it  would  be  futile  to  argue  here.  A  different 
view,  and  probably  the  prevailing  view,  is  that  summed 
up  in  the  following  words  of  the  most  genial  interpreter  of 
some  later  passages  in  the  movement  that  has  here  been 
traced :  "  The  new  Unitarianism  is  neither  sentimental  nor 
transcendental  nor  traditional.  It  calls  itself  Unitarian 
simply  because  that  name  suggests  freedom  and  breadth 
and  progress  and  elasticity  and  joy.  Another  name  might 
do  as  well,  perhaps  be  more  accurately  descriptive.  But 
no  other  would  be  so  impressive,  or  on  the  whole  so  hon- 
orable."' 

1  O.  B.  Frothingham,  "  Boston  Unitarianism,"  p.  267. 


SUPPLEMENTARY   NOTE. 


The  following  letter,  here  inserted  by  permission  of  Dr.  Mar- 
tineau,  was  written-  to  accompany  some  marginal  suggestions  on 
pages  149-168,  which  have  been  adopted  in  the  revision  of  the 
plates.  It  constitutes  an  independent  chapter,  or  commentary, 
of  special  importance  to  the  understanding  of  the  period  there 
included. 

35  Gordon  Square,  LoNnoN,  W.  C, 
January  13,  1894. 

Dear  Dr.  Allen  :  I  have  read  your  proof-sheet  with  the  greatest  interest, 
and  return  it  with  a  few  marginal  notes,  indicating  the  only  points  at  which, 
as  it  appears  to  nie,  the  mode  of  statement  admits  of  somewhat  more  preci- 
sion. These  refer  to  matters  of  detail,  and  will,  I  trust,  sufficiently  explain 
themselves. 

I  am  struck,  however,  with  a  difliculty  which  you  have  to  encounter  in 
prefixing  to  an  "American  Chureh  History,"  which  is  fairly  concurrent  with 
American  history  of  Doetrine,  an  account  of  our  English  history  of  the  corre- 
sponding Doctrinal  development,  which  ran  its  course,  as  its  literature  shows 
(witness  Locke,  Clarke,  Whiston,  P'irmin,  Penn,  Emlyn),  on  several  eccle- 
siastical lines,  and  nez'er  gathered  itself  tip  into  an  organized  c/ntrch  at  all. 
Prior  to  the  date  (Lindsey's  change)  from  which  you  start,  the  Unitarian 
theology  had  its  chief  home  in  our  English  Presbyterian  congregations  of 
I'axterian  descent  and  in  the  Dublin  and  Munster  Presbyteries,  because  their 
fundamental  principle  of  Christian  fellowship  was  devotion  to  the  service  of 
God,  in  the  spirit  of  Christ,  unconditioned  by  any  pledge,  actual  or  tacit,  lim- 
iting the  varieties  or  checking  the  development  of  theological  opinion.  This 
utter  repudiation  oi  any  "  orthodoxy"  as  alTecting  the  disciples'  peace  with 
God  threw  the  whole  emphasis  of  the  fellow-worshipers'  union  on  righteous- 
ness of  life  and  the  graces  of  the  Christian  mind,  and  rendered  possible  the 
coexistence  of  many  shades  of  doctrinal  thought  within  one  communion. 

This  feature  of  doctrinal  catholicity  rendered  the  congregations  which  it 
characterize<l  very  attractive  to  Protestant  exiles  from  France,  Geneva,  and 
Holland,  who  had  suffered  from  the  rigor  of  Calvinistic  tests  at  home.  It 
drew  them  especially  to  Dublin,  where  there  h.id  been  nothing  to  hinder  the 
continuance  of  the  Presliyterian  order  of  church  government ;  whereas  in 
England  this  order,  after  being  suspended  for  a  generation — between  the  Act 

247 


248  SUPPLEMENTARY  NOTE. 

of  Uniformity  (1662)  and  that  of  Toleration  (1689) — as  illegal,  was  unable 
to  reconstitute  itself,  and  left  the  name  "Presbyterian"  without  any  living 
significance.  Hence  it  is  in  Dublin  and  Munster  alone  that,  through  the 
influx  of  Huguenots,  Remonstrants  and  Swiss,  who  had  no  love  for  tests,  a 
real  Presbyterian  Clnirch  Order  constituted  itself  and  remained  to  our  times 
(I  myself  received  ordination  from  it),  with  absolute  freedom  from  engage- 
ment to  prescribed  theological  doctrine.  The  Irish  Nonconformists  were  in 
a  better  position  than  the  English  for  giving  efTcct  to  their  need  and  claim  of 
religious  liberty;  for  the  English  Toleration  Act  of  1689  still  required  from 
them  subscription  to  "the  doctrinal  articles  of  the  Church  of  England  "  ;l  and 
only  so  far  as  they  managed  to  evade  this  in  practice  (-which  they  extensively 
did)  had  their  conscience  as  teachers  free  play.  The  Irish  Act  of  Toleration 
followed  later  (I  think  in  1 719);  and  when  the  draft  of  it  was  laid  before 
George  I.  by  his  ministers,  the  Ring,  on  coming  to  the  clause  requiring  this 
subscription,  ran  his  pen  through  it,  and  said,  "  You  do  not  know  what  you 
would  be  at:  they  shall  have  their  toleration  without  subscription."  And  in 
this  form  the  act  was  passed.  To  the  Southern  Presbyteri.ins  this  exemption 
was  altogether  congenial.  But  the  Northerners  of  the  Synod  of  Ulster,  hav- 
ing brought  over  with  them  all  their  Scotch  habitudes  and  standards,  main- 
tained ecclesiastically  the  dogmatic  restrictions  from  which  they  were  released 
legally ;  and  the  more  progressive  spirits  among  them,  who  were  restive 
under  the  restraint,  could  emancipate  themselves  only  by  secession.  Hence 
the  schism  which  first  broke  off,  early  in  the  last  century,  the  nonsubscribing 
"Presbytery  of  Antrim,"  and  the  larger  schism  which,  in  1834,  created  the 
"Remonstrant  Synod  of  Ulster"  in  both  of  vidiich,  as  in  Munster,  Arianism 
and  Humanitarianism  found  acceptance  and  repose,  in  fellowship  with  Trini- 
tarianism. 

This  relegation  of  systematic  theology  to  the  Schools,  and  concentration  of 
the  Church  on  the  Christian  graces  and  life  of  holiness  possible  under  all 
theories  alike,  was  the  characteristic  principle  of  fellowship  in  our  churches 
here  for  more  than  a  century  before  your  opening  date  ;2  during  the  whole 
of  which  Unitarians  and  Trinitarians  found  it  possible  to  worship  together. 
The  dissensions  which  broke  out  among  the  dogmatic  churches,  beginning 
with  the  Church  of  England,  doubtless  made  this  catholic  neutralism  towards 
doctrine  more  and  more  difficult  to  maintain ;  and  many  a  time  worthy  neigh- 
bors, hitherto  accustomed  to  "go  up  to  the  house  of  God  in  company,"  would 
be  persuaded  to  look  askance  at  each  other  as  "  heretic  "  and  "  idolater."  In 
the  case  of  a  creed-bound  church,  such  as  that  to  which  Lindsey  was  pledged, 
the  severance  was  plainly  necessary ;  and  the  house  of  refuge  created  for  him 
in  Essex  Street  was  naturally  dedicated  to  the  particular  type  of  theology 
which  had  suffered  exile  in  his  person.  This  gave  it  its  essence  and  its  name, 
and  intimated  to  every  Trinitarian  that  its  invitation  was  not  meant  for  him. 
It  is  not  wonderful  that  the  example  of  the  first  Unitarian  church  was  fol- 
lowed, as  you  relate,  by  a  gradual  extension  of  the  name  to  congregations 
1  See  p.  148.  2  Referring  to  the  opening  paragraph  on  p.  149. — Ed. 


SUPPLEMENTARY  NOTE.  249 

historically  opL-n  to  doctrinal  variety ;  for  had  not  the  world  scorned  such 
catholicity,  and  driven  its  heretics  into  their  sanctuaries  alone?  What  could 
they  do  hut  accept  their  expulsion,  and  set  up  a  separate  worship  in  which 
others  were  not  asked  to  join?  You  truly  say  that  they  yielded  to  this  temp- 
tation, and  that,  within  a  few  years  of  Lindsey's  death,  the  old  Baxterian 
congregations,  deserted  by  their  Trinitarian  elements  through  the  sharpened 
controversies  of  the  times,  and  tired  of  their  unmeaning  "Presbyterian" 
name,  were  caught  by  the  Essex  Street  example  and  allowed  their  inherited 
house  of  God,  in  forgetfulness  of  its  parentage,  to  be  stamped  with  the  name 
of  their  own  personal  opinions:  True,  that  is  the  beginning  of  the  Uiiita- 
rianiztd  life  of  our  churches.  But,  instead  of  being  a  development  out  of  their 
original  principle,  it  is  a  direct  contradiction  of  it  and  apostasy  from  it ;  such 
a  shifting  of  their  center  of  gravity  as  to  make  their  new  doctrinal  essence 
affirm  exactly  what  their  old  catholic  essence  denied.  I  cannot,  therefore, 
but  look  on  all  that  follows  on  your  initial  date  as  not  our  proper  church 
history,  but  as  an  aberration  from  it. 

Instead  of  troubling  you  with  more  words  on  this  matter,  I  inclose  a  short 
paper  which  will  perhaps  better  enable  you  to  seize  my  meaning,  and  to  un- 
derstand my  lifelong  refusal  ever  to  join,  as  member  or  minister,  a  Unitarian 
Church.  A  Unitarian  Society,  of  individuals  interested  in  vindicating  the 
theological  opinions  held  by  them  in  common,  I  approve  anil  gladly  support, 
so  long  as  it  limits  itself  to  the  exposition  of  opinion,  and  refrains  from  all 
ecclesiastical  function  or  pretension  to  represent  churches.  Harmony  in  the 
moral  and  affectional  relations  of  the  human  spirit  and  the  Divine  (and  this 
it  is  the  object  of  a  church  to  secure)  is  possible  to  all  degrees  of  intelligence 
and  all  stages  of  culture,  antl  ought  never  to  be  represented  as  conditional 
on  finally  true  opinion.  15ut  this  is  no  hindrance  to  an  educational  zeal  for 
helping  forward,  by  other  agencies,  the  growth  of  larger  thought  and  clearer 
insight. 

To  mc,  therefore,  it  seems  that  you  take  up  our  history  just  .it  the  point 
when  we  surrendered  our  birthright,  and,  quitting  the  ground  of  spiritual 
religion,  were  caught  up  into  the  competition  of  "orthodoxies"  and  were 
content  to  meet  all  opponents  with  the  assertion  that  our  orthodoxy  was 
better  than  theirs.  This  is  not  the  gospel  which  it  was  given  us  to  preach  ; 
and  any  future  it  may  have  in  it  belongs,  I  fear,  merely  to  the  history  of  in- 
tellectual opinion  without  any  quickening  contact  with  our  org.inized  religious 
life.    .    .    . 

I  pray  you  to  pardon  this  tedious  letter.  It  is  written  under  medical  pro- 
hibition of  all  use  of  the  i)en,  during  recovery  from  an  attack  of  illness  which 
has  confined  me  to  my  room  for  the  last  ten  or  twelve  days.  I  ventured  to 
disobey ;  and  though  yon  are  the  worse  for  it,  I  am  not.  I  have  no  space 
left  to  thank  you  for  your  letter,  and  to  reciprocate  its  kind  wishes.  Believe 
me,  always, 

Yours  most  cordially, 

James  Marti neau. 


HISTORY    OF    UNIVERSALISM, 


RICHARD    KDDV,   ]).D. 


251 


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,  Institutes  of  Ecclesiastical  History,  Ancient  and  Modern.    Murdock  s 

translation;    3  vols.      New  York,  Stanford  &  Swords,  1845. 
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Smith,  Rev.  Stephen  R.,  Historical  Sketches  and  Incidents  illustrative 
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1843,  1844. 
Thomas,  Rev,  Abel  C,  A  Ccnturv  of  Universalism  in  Philadelphia  and 

AV:.'   York,  etc.      Philadelphia,  The  Author,  1872. 
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II.     Biography. 

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J.  M.  Usher,   1854. 
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House,  1867. 
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Brewster,  1836. 

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Antc-A^iccnc  Fathers.     Am.  ed.  ;  8  vols.      Buffalo,  Christian  Literature  Co., 

18^   1886. 
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Joshua  Belcher,  1812. 
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1792. 


THE    UNIVERSALISTS. 


CHAPTER    I. 

FROM    THE    BEGINNING   TO    THE    REFORMATION. 

UNlVERSALIS^r,  using  the  word  in  its  present  theologi- 
cal meaning,  is  the  doctrine  or  belief  that  it  is  the  purpose 
of  God,  through  the  grace  revealed  in  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  to  save  every  member  of  the  human  race  from  sin. 
The  word  suggests  nothing  with  regard  to  any  human 
founder,  any  place  where  it  was  first  promulgated,  any 
particular  form  of  church  polity,  any  rite  or  ordinance,  any 
opinion  of  the  equality  or  the  subordination  of  the  Son  to 
the  Father.  Universalism  is  not  dependent  on  these.  It 
may  be,  and  to  some  extent  has  been,  and  is  still,  embraced 
by  those  in  Christian  sects  whose  denominational  titles  em- 
phasize these  respective  peculiarities. 

The  Universalist  denomination,  as  an  organized  body  of 
believers  in  Universali.sm,  gratefully  recognizes  its  founders, 
has  adopted  a  definite  polity  of  government,  observes  rites 
and  ordinances,  believes  in  the  subordination  of  the  Son  to 
the  Father.  The  presence  of  Universalism  may  be  traced 
to  the  earliest  period  of  Christian  history.  The  existence 
of  the  Universalist  denomination  reaches  but  little  beyond  \ 
a  century. 

The  plan  of  this  history  is,  therefore,  twofold :  to  show 
where  and  how  Uni\-ersalism  has  been  advocated,  and  to 

255 


256  THE    UNIVERSALISrS.  [Chap,  i, 

describe  the  rise,  progress,  and  present  status  of  the  Uni- 
versahst  Church. 

It  is  now  generally  conceded  by  writers  on  the  history 
of  Christianity  and  its  doctrines,  that  the  earliest  known 
writings  after  the  days  of  the  Apostles  are  apologies  or 
defenses  of  the  facts  in  relation  to  the  life  and  mission  of 
Jesus  and  exhortations  to  the  Christian  life,  rather  than 
statements  of  eschatological  opinions  or  beliefs.  It  is  not 
improbable  that  there  may  have  been  several  written  state- 
ments of  doctrines — as  the  opinions  of  some  thereon  are 
quoted  by  later  writers — which  have  perished,  it  having 
been  the  policy  of  the  persecutors  of  the  early  church  to 
destroy  all  Christian  documents  they  could  reach. 

It  may  be  conceded  that  there  were  then,  as  in  later 
times  and  now,  three  general  opinions  held  in  regard  to 
the  destiny  of  the  sinful :  their  annihilation,  their  endless 
suffering,  and  their  final  salvation.  But  it  is  very  certain 
that  for  centuries  the  latter  opinion  was  regarded  as  ortho- 
dox as  were  either  of  the  others.  Even  where  it  was  held 
by  the  several  divisions  of  the  Gnostics,  A.D.  130,  it  was 
never  charged  by  the  orthodox  that  their  Universalism 
was  a  heresy. 

In  the  second  century,  the  church,  on  the  ground  that 
"  the  end  justifies  the  means,"  perpetrated  what  is  in- 
congruously called  a  "pious  fraud."  From  an  early  pe- 
riod there  had  existed,  preserved  with  great  secrecy  in 
the  temple  of  Jupiter,  writings  known  as  the  "  Sibylline 
Books,"  containing  oracles  claiming  to  have  been  deliv- 
ered by  the  ancient  Sybils,  or  pagan  prophetesses.  These 
books  shared  the  fate  of  the  temple  when  it  was  destroyed 
by  fire,  B.C.  83.  Attempts  for  their  restoration  were  made 
at  various  times,  in  which  some  Christian  or  Christians  took 
part  by  forging  what  are  now  known  as  the  "  Sibylline 
Oracles,"  and  putting  them  forth  for  the  purpose  of  con- 


THE  "s//n/././x/-:  oA'.ic/.ES.''  257 

verting;  the  lieathen  to  Christianity  on  the  pretended  testi- 
mony of  their  own  acknowledged  prophetic  writers.  The 
"  Oracles  "  have  been  attributed  to  Montanus,  to  Christians 
of  Alexandria,  to  the  Gnostics,  and  even  to  TertuUian;  and 
ha\e  also  been  regarded  as  the  production  of  different  ages, 
reaching  from  before  Chri-st  to  A.D.  500.  Much  of  this 
speculation  as  to  time  is  absurd  and  impossible,  and  much 
is  mere  conjecture.  It  is  very  certain  that  they  are  of  caily 
origin,  and  a  portion  undoubtedly  belongs  to  the  second 
century,  to  which  they  have  been  generally  accredited. 
The}'  were  usetl  as  indubitable  evidence  in  controversies 
witji  the  heathen,  by  Justin  Mart}'r,  Theophilusof  Antioch, 
Athenagoras,  Clement  of  Alexandria,  Origen,  Augustine, 
luisebius,  etc.  Origen  in  his  controversy  with  Celsus  says 
that  the  enemies  of  the  Christians  sometimes  derisively 
called  them  Sibyllists.^ 

What  these  fraudulent  "  Oracles "  teach  is  of  little 
moment,  oiil}-  as  it  indicates  what  then  entered  into  gen- 
eral Christian  belief  and  was  pressed  with  great  zeal  on  the 
attention  of  the  heathen  ;is  orthodo.x  Christianity.  In  them 
we  ha\'e  an  explicit  declaration  that  the  damned  shall  be 
restored.  After  describing  the  burning  of  the  universe, 
tUc  rising  of  the  dead,  the  assembled  world  before  the 
judgment-seat,  and  the  horrible  torments  to  which  the 
damned  are  sentenced  in  the  flames  of  hell,  the  "  Oracle  " 
proceeds  to  expatiate  on  the  blessedness  and  the  pi'ivileges 
of  the  saved;  and  concludes  the  account  by  saying  that, 
after  the  general  judgment:  "The  omnipotent,  incorrup- 
tible God  shall  confer  another  faxor  on  his  worshipers, 
when  they  shall  ask  him  :  he  shall  save  mankind  from  the 
pernicious  fire  and  innnortal  agonies.  This  will  he  do. 
For,  having  gathered  them,  safely  secured  from  the  un- 
wearied flame,  and   a|)])()inlc'(l   them   to  another  place,  he 

•   "The  Aiuc-Nici'iu'  1' alliens, '"  vol.  iv.,  \i.  570. 


258  THE    CNIVEKSALISTS.  [CiiAi-.  i. 

shall  send  them,  for  his  people's  sake,  into  another  and  an 
eternal  life,  with  the  immortals  on  the  Elysian  plain,  where 
flow  perpetually  the  loni^,  dark  waves  of  the  deep  sea  of 
Acheron." 

If  the  early  Christians  desired  the  heathen  to  thus  be- 
lieve in  the  restoration  of  the  wicked,  it  undoubtedly  was 
because  the}^  received  it  as  a  Christian  doctrine.  And  that 
the  above-cited  passage  sets  forth  the  fact  that  the  "  Ora- 
cles "  do  teach  Universalism,  learned  translators  of  and 
commentators  on  the  "  Oracles,"  such  as  Musardus,  Cas- 
talio,  Galkeus,  and  Davis,  in  his  translation  of  Blondel's 
"  French  Treatise,"  are  agreed.  1 

Theophilus,  bishop  of  the  church  at  Antioch,  although 
he  speaks  of  the  wicked  as  enduring  "  ex'erlasting  fire," 
"  everlasting  torments,"  also  teaches  a  final  universal  res- 
toration ;  thus  showing  that,  like  other  early  Greeks,  he 
did  not  regard  aionios  as  meaning  endless.  Speaking  of 
"  God's  goodness  in  expelling  man  from  paradise,"  he 
says :  "  God  showed  great  kindness  to  man  in  this,  that  he 
did  not  suffer  him  to  remain  in  sin  forever;  but,  as  it  were, 
by  a  kind  of  banishment,  cast  him  out  of  paradise,  in  order 
that,  having  by  punishment  expiated,  within  an  appointed 
time,  the  sin,  and  ha\nng  been  disciplined,  he  should  after- 
ward be  restored.  Wherefore  also,  when  man  had  been 
formed  in  this  world,  it  is  mystically  written  in  Genesis, 
as  if  he  had  been  twice  placed  in  paradise ;  so  that  the  one 
was  fulfilled  when  he  was  placed  theie,  and  the  second 
will  be  fulfilled  after  the  resurrection  and  judgment.  For 
just  as  a  vessel,  when  on  being  fashioned  it  has  some  flaw, 
is  remolded  or  remade,  that  it  may  become  new  and  en- 
tire, so  shall  it  happen  to  man  by  death.  For  somehow 
or  other  he  is  broken  up,  that  he  may  rise  in  the  resur- 

•   See  a  learned  note  by  Thomas  B.  Thayer,  D.I).,  in  "  Universalist  (Quar- 
terly," July,  1868,  pp.  36911. 


CLEM  EXT   OE  ALEXAXDKL-l.  259 

rcctioii  wliole ;  I  mean  spotless,  and  riy;hteous,  and  ini- 
inortal."  ' 

The  first  i^reat  scholar  in  the  cluirch,  renowned  for  his 
knowledge  of  history  and  philosoph)-,  was  Clement  of 
Alexandria,  successor  to  Pantccnus  as  head  of  the  theo- 
logical school  at  Alexandria.  It  was  a  fundamental  doc- 
trine with  Clement  that  man  was  created  to  he  educated 
and  not  for  a  limited  trial  of  his  powers,  and  that  his  op- 
portunity for  education  is  as  lasting  as  his  being.  In  view 
of  this  it  wx:)uld  be  impossible  to  conceive  of  punishment 
as  an  end,  much  less  of  its  being  endless,  or  resulting  in 
the  annihilation  of  the  i)unished.  This  is  his  teaching  in 
his  "  Exhortation  to  the  Heathen  "  : 

"  Great  is  the  grace  of  his  promise,  '  if  to-day  we  hear 
his  voice.'  And  that  to-da}'  is  lengthened  out  da}'  by 
tlay,  while  it  is  called  to-day.  And  to  the  end  the  to-day 
and  the  instruction  continue ;  and  then  the  true  to-day, 
the  never-ending  day  of  God,  extends  o\er  eternit}'.  Let 
us  then  ever  obey  the  voice  of  the  di\-ine  Word,  h'or  the 
to-day  signifies  eternity.'"' 

So  in  the  "  Pedagogue,"  Clement  thus  answers  the  ob- 
jection, "  How  then,  if  the  Lord  loves  man  and  is  good,  is 
he  aiigry  and  punishes?  "  : 

"We  must  treat  of  this  point  with  all  possible  brevity^, 
for  this  mode  of  treatment  is  advantageous  to  the  right 
training  of  the  children,  occup)ing  the  place  of  a  necessary 
helj).  P'or  many  of  the  passions  are  cured  by  punishment, 
and  by  the  inculcation  of  the  sterner  precepts,  as  also  by  in- 
struction in  certain  principles.  Rei)roof  is,  as  it  were,  the 
surgery  of  the  passions  of  the  soul.  .  .  .  Reproach  is  like 
the  application  of  medicines  dissolving  the  callosities  of 
the  .soul  and  purging  the  impurities  of  the  lewdness  of  the 
life.   .   .   .   Admonition   is,  as  it  were,  the   regimen   of  the 

1   "Tin.'  .\nlc-Nicenc  Fathers,"  vol.  ii.,  [).  104.  2  /A/,/.,  p.   itj6. 


26o  THE    UNIVERSALISIS.  [Chap.  i. 

diseased  soul,  prescribing  what  it  must  take,  and  forbid- 
ding what  it  must  not.  And  all  these  tend  to  salvation 
and  eternal  health.  .  .  .  He  who  is  our  great  General, 
the  Word,  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  universe,  by 
admonishing  those  who  throw  off  the  restraints  of  his  law, 
that  he  may  effect  their  release  from  the  slavery,  error,  and 
captivity  of  the  adversary,  brings  them  peacefully  to  the 
sacred  concord  of  citizenship.  .  .  .  Those  who  are  not  in- 
duced by  praise  are  spurred  on  by  censure;  and  those 
whom  censure  calls  not  forth  to  salvation,  being  as  dead, 
are  by  denunciation  roused  to  the  truth.  .  .  .  The  vine 
that  is  not  pruned  grows  to  wood.  So  also  man.  The 
Word — the  knife — clears  away  the  wanton  shoots ;  com- 
pelling the  impulses  of  the  soul  to  fructify,  not  to  indulge 
in  lust.  Now,  reproof  addressed  to  sinners  has  their  sal- 
vation for  its  aim,  the  word  being  harmoniously  adjusted 
to  each  one's  conduct ;  now  with  tightened,  now  with  re- 
laxed cords.  .  .  .  Wherefore  I  will  grant  that  he  punishes 
the  disobedient  (for  punishment  is  for  the  good  and  ad- 
vantage of  him  who  is  punished,  for  it  is  the  correction  of 
a  refractory  subject) ;  but  I  will  not  grant  that  he  wishes 
to  take  vengeance.  Revenge  is  retribution  for  evil,  im- 
posed for  the  advantage  of  him  who  takes  the  revenge. 
He  will  not  desire  us  to  take  revenge  who  teaches  us  '  to 
pray  for  those  that  despitefully  use  us.'  .  .  .  With  all  his 
power,  therefore,  the  Instructor  of  humanity,  the  divine 
Word,  using  all  the  resources  of  wisdoi]i,  devotes  himself 
to  the  saving  of  the  children,  admonishing,  upbraiding, 
blaming,  chiding,  reproving,  threatening,  healing,  promis- 
ing, favoring ;  and  as  it  were,  by  many  reins,  curbing  the 
irrational  impulses  of  humanity.  To  speak  briefly,  there- 
fore, the  Lord  acts  toward  us  as  we  do  toward  our  children. 
*  Hast  thou  children?  correct  them,'  is  the  exhortation  of 
the  book  of  Wisdom,  '  and  bend  them  from  their  youth. 


CLEMENT  OE  ALEXANDRIA.  26 1 

Hast  thou  (lauL^hlcrs?  attend  to  their  body,  and  let  not  thy 
face  brighten  toward  them,' — ahhough  we  love  our  chil- 
dren exceedingly,  both  sons  and  tlaug liters,  above  all  else 
whatever.  For  those  who  speak  with  a  man  merely  to 
l)lease  him  have  little  lo\e  for  him,  seeing  they  do  not 
jjain  him  ;  while  tiiose  that  speak  for  his  good,  though  they 
inflict  pain  for  the  time,  do  him  good  forever  after.  It  is 
not  immediate  pleasure,  but  future  enjoyment,  that  the 
Lord  has  in  view."^ 

It  was  a  common  belief  among  Christians  of  all  sects  or 
divisions  in  the  second  and  third  centuries,  that  Christ  went 
down  into  hades,  or  the  underworld,  after  his  death  on  the 
cross,  and  remained  there  until  his  resurrection  ;  but  there 
was  not  general  agreement  as  to  what  he  did  while  there. 
Clement  was  of  the  opinion  that  he  went  there  "  to  preach 
the  gospel  to  those  that  perished  in  the  flood,  or  rather 
had  been  chained,  and  to  those  kept '  in  ward  and  guard.'  " 
And  his  argument  based  on  his  thus  being  employed 
reaches  beyond  the  particular  class  of  sinners  then  in  the 
underworld,  and  includes  all  who  there  or  elsewhere  need 
.salvation.      Thus  in  the  "  Stromata  "  : 

"  If,  then,  the  Lord  descended  to  hades  for  no  other  end 
but  to  preach  the  gospel,  as  he  did  descend,  it  was  either 
to  preach  the  gospel  to  all  or  to  the  Hebrews  only.  If, 
accordingly,  to  all,  then  all  who  believe  .shall  be  saved,  al- 
though they  may  be  of  the  Gentiles,  on  making  their  pro- 
fession there  ;  since  God's  j)uiiishments  are  saving  and  dis- 
ciplinary, leading  to  conversion,  and  choosing  rather  the 
repentance  than  the  death  of  the  sinner;  and  especially 
since  souls,  although  darkened  by  passions,  when  released 
from  their  bodies  are  able  to  perceix'e  more  clearly,  because 
of  their  being  no  longer  obstructctl  by  the  paltry  flesh."- 

1  "  Tlie  Antf-Nircne  Fathers,"  vol.  ii.,  pp.  225  ff. 

2  //'/,/.,   p.   4()0  f. 


262  THE    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chai-.  i. 

In  another  chapter,  arguing  that  Christ  is  the  Saviour 
of  all,  he  says : 

"  All  men  are  his ;  some  through  knowledge,  and  others 
not  yet  so ;  and  some  as  friends,  some  as  faithful  servants, 
some  as  servants  merely.  This  is  the  Teacher  who  trains 
the  Gnostic  by  mysteries,  and  the  believer  by  good  hopes, 
and  the  hard  of  heart  by  corrective  discipline  through 
sensible  operation.  .  ,  .  How  is  he  Saviour  and  Lord,  if 
not  the  Saviour  and  Lord  of  all?  But  he  is  the  Saviour 
of  those  who  have  believed,  because  of  their  wishing  to 
know ;  and  the  Lord  of  those  w^ho  have  not  believed,  till, 
being  enabled  to  confess  him,  they  obtain  the  peculiar  and 
appropriate  boon  which  comes  by  him.  .  .  .  For  all  things 
are  arranged  with  a  view  to  the  sah-ation  of  the  universe 
by  the  Lord  of  the  universe,  both  generally  and  particu- 
larly. .  .  .  Now  everything  that  is  virtuous  changes  for 
the  better ;  having  as  the  proper  cause  of  change  the  free 
choice  of  knowledge,  which  the  soul  has  in  its  own  power. 
But  necessary  corrections,  through  the  goodness  of  the 
great  overseeing  Judge,  both  by  the  attendant  angels  and 
by  various  acts  of  anticipative  judgment,  obey  the  perfect 
judgment,  compel  egregious  sinners  to  repent."^ 

\\\  the  "  Fragments,"  Clement  makes  this  strong  state- 
ment in  commenting  on  i  John  ii.  2  :  "  '  And  not  onl}'  for 
our  sins  ' — that  is,  for  those  of  tlie  faithful — is  the  Lord 
the  propitiator,  does  he  say,  '  but  also  for  the  whole  world.' 
He,  indeed,  saves  all ;  but  some  [he  .saves],  converting 
them  by  punishments;  others,  however,  who  follow  vol- 
untarily [he  saves]  with  dignity  of  honor ;  so  '  that  every 
knee  should  bow  to  him,  of  things  in  heaven,  and  things 
on  earth,  and  things  under  the  earth  ' ;  that  is,  angels,  men, 
and  souls  that  before  his  advent  have  departed  from  this 
temporal  life." 

1   "The  Ante-Niccnc  Fathers,"  vol.  ii.,  pj).  524  IT.  2  //,/,/.,  p.  575. 


ORIGKN.  263 

Clement  was  succeeded  in  the  presidency  of  the  theo- 
logical school  by  his  pupil,  the  renowned  Origen.  Mos- 
heim  says  of  him : 

"  He  had  traveled  through  the  whole  encyclopnsdia  of 
human  knowledge  in  that  age,  and  he  was  justly  accounted 
a  uni\ersal  scholar,  both  by  the  Christians  and  by  other 
people.  .  .  .  Origen  possessed  every  excellence  that  can 
adorn  the  Christian  character;  uncommon  piety,  from 
his  very  childhood ;  unequaled  perseverance  in  labors  and 
toils  for  the  advancement  of  the  Christian  cause ;  untiring 
zeal  for  the  church,  and  for  the  extension  of  Christianity; 
an  elevation  of  soul  which  placed  him  above  all  ordinary 
desires  or  fears ;  the  purest  trust  in  the  Lord  Jesus,  for 
whose  sake,  when  he  was  old  and  oppressed  with  ills  of 
every  kind,  he  patient))-  and  perseveringly  endured  the 
severest  sufferings.  .  .  .  Certainly  if  any  man  deserves 
to  stand  first  in  the  catalogue  of  saints  and  martyrs,  and 
to  be  annually  held  up  as  an  example  to  Christians,  this 
is  the  man:  for,  except  the  apostles  of  Jesus  Christ  and 
their  companions,  I  know  of  no  one,  among  those  enrolled 
and  honored  as  saints,  who  excelled  him  in  holiness  and 
virtue." ' 

The  philosoi)hy  of  Origen  had  as  its  fundamental  the 
doctrine  of  the  preexistence  of  souls,  which,  at  their  crea- 
tion, had  all  been  on  a  plane  of  equality  ;  that  by  the  ex- 
ercise of  their  free-WMll — a  characteristic  of  their  being 
which  will  endure  eternally — some  had  chosen  to  put 
themsch'es  out  of  harmony  witli  God  and  were  now  in 
material  investments  for  their  education  and  discijiline. 
Tile  higher  order  of  souls — i.e.,  tliost  who  ha\e  made  the 
best  choice — are  lodged  in  those  splendid  material  bodies, 
the  sun,  moon,  and  stars;  such  as  liad  chosen  unwisely 
and  uickedl)'  are  doomed  to  inhabit  Iniinan  bodies;  while 

'   Mosliciiu's  "  Historical  CoinineiUnries,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  149  f. 


264  THE    UXl  VERSA  LISTS.  [Chap.  i. 

those  Still  more  perverse  become  demons  and  are  attached 
to  bodies  more  tenuous  than  ours,  and  such  as  vehemently 
excite  them  to  evil.  Souls  which  resist  temptation  and 
choose  righteousness  are  gradually  purified;  souls  which 
neglect  this  duty  will  be  subjected  to  some  harsher  mode 
of  purgation  until  they  repent  and  begin  to  exert  their 
liberty  for  good.  And  when  all  souls  shall  have  returned 
to  their  primitive  state  and  to  God,  this  material  world 
will  be  dissolved. 

Origen's  philosophy  seemed  to  him  so  well  founded  and 
important  that  it  colored  all  his  theology  as  derived  from 
the  Scriptures,  and  necessitated  his  theory  of  interpreta- 
tion. The  literal  meaning  of  the  Bible  he  did  not  deny 
in  regard  to  many  of  its  plainest  statements,  for  he  said : 
"  The  passages  that  are  true  in  their  historical  [literal] 
meaning  are  much  more  numerous  than  those  which  are 
interspersed  with  a  purely  spiritual  significance."^  Some 
passages  are  allegorical,  and  he  supposed  that  the  higher 
sense  of  the  Scriptures  as  a  wh.ole  was  the  mystical  or 
spiritual  sense. 

By  all  his  contemporaries,  and  by  historians  of  Christian 
doctrines  generally,  Origen  is  regarded  as  teaching  the 
doctrine  of  Universalism.  By  a  few,  chiefly  in  modern 
times,  it  is  denied  that  he  so  taught ;  the  contention  being 
that  he  intimates  the  possibility  of  "  endless  changes  "  from 
good  to  bad,  or  from  bad  to  good.  The  foundation  for 
this  opinion  is  in  a  supposed  passage  in  the  "  De  rrinci])iis," 
and  certain  assertions  of  Jerome  and  yVugustine. 

The  passage  in  the  "  De  Princij^iis  "  is  the  following: 
"  We  are  of  opinion  that,  seeing  the  soul,  as  we  have  fre- 
quently said,  is  immortal  and  eternal,  it  is  possible  that,  in 
the  many  and  endless  periods  of  duration  in  the  immeasur- 
able and  different  worlds,  it  may  descend  from  the  highest 

1  "  Tlie  .\ntc-Nicenc  ]<"atlicrs,"  xcl.  iv.,  p.  368. 


ON /a  EN.  265 

good  to  the  lowest  evil,  or  l)e  restored  from  the  lowest  evil 
to  the  hi;^hest  good."' 

Origen  said  nothing  of  the  kind.  It  is  a  sheer  invention 
of  Ruhnus,  vvh(j  pretended  to  translate  Origen  from  the 
Greek  into  the  Latin,  but,  to  meet  his  own  ends,  in  setting 
forth  Origen's  opinions  omitted  much,  added  more,  and 
whatever  was  not  to  his  liking,  changed.  Unfortunately, 
only  a  few  fragments  of  the  Greek  remain,  and  so  we  are 
not  able  lo  detect  all  the  unwarranted  changes  and  ad- 
ditions ;  but  in  the  portit)n  cited  above,  the  Greek  has  been 
preserved  and  shows  that  Rufinus  invented  what  he  pre- 
tended to  change  into  Latin. ^ 

Jerome  had  been  a  great  admirer  of  Orige.n,  had  spoken 
of  him  in  terms  of  highest  praise,  had  followed  him  in 
forming  his  own  opinions  and  in  writing  his  conmientaries  ; 
going  so  far  in  the  latter  as  to  subject  Himself  to  the  charge 
of  appropriating  more  than  accorded  with  strict  honor 
and  fair  dealing.  Drawn  into  a  league  with  Epiphanius  in 
seeking  to  bring  reproach  on  Origen,- now  a  hundred  and 
fifty  years  dead,  he  was  both  weak  and  dishonest ;  and, 
like  Rufmus,  invented  whatever  would  suit  his  purpose  in 
damaging  the  reputation  of  one  to  whom  he  was  so  much 
in  debt  for  his  own  learning  and  ability.  Rufinus,  indeed, 
appeals  to  the  example  of  Jerome  for  justification  of  hi.'^ 
own  misrepresentation  of  Origen's  opinions.^  Neither  of 
them  stood  on  any  such  trifle  as  honest)'  when  something 
else  would  belter  ser\'e  their  immediate  purpose.  This  is 
abimdanlly  shown  in  their  letters  to  each  (Hhcr  in  the  xol- 
ume  just  referred  to. 

7\ugustine's  opinion  of  (Origen's  teachings,  although 
honestly  given,  was  founded   on   Jerome's  statements,  he 

1  "  The  Antt'-Nicciu;  Initials,"  vol.  iv.,  p.  327. 

-  See  Rufinus'  translation,  unci  a  literal  renderint;  of  Origen's  Creek,  in 
j^arallcl  cuhiinns,  in  "  The  Ante-Nicene  Fathers,"  vol.  iv.,  p.  327. 

^  "  Niceiie  ami  I'ctst-N'icene  I'"allu-rs,"  seeond  series,  v<"l.  iii.,  p.  44(1. 


266  THE    UiYI  VERSA  LISTS.  [Chap.  i. 

having  requested  the  latter  to  tell  him  wherein  Origen  had 
departed  from  the  truth.  He  had  not  read  for  himself  the 
Greek  of  Origen.  He  is  not  therefore,  in  this  matter,  an 
independent  witness,  but  the  echo  of  an  unscrupulous  one. 
If  it  is,  as  we  have  said,  believed  by  contemporaries  and 
generally  agreed  by  historians  of  Christian  doctrines  that 
Origen  taught  universal  salvation,  then  the  presumption 'is 
that  wherein  his  writings,  as  they  have  come  to  us  through 
the  manipulation  of  unscrupulous  hands,  disagree  with  or 
flatly  contradict  this  teaching,  they  are  not  a  true  transla- 
tion of  what  Origen  wrote.  Jerome,  in  charging  Rufinus 
with  changing  Origen's  words  instead  of  translating  them, 
makes  this  just  remark  :  "  Origen  is  no  fool,  as  I  well  know  ; 
he  cannot  contradict  himself."^  Here  is  what  Origen  says 
in  the  "  De  Principiis,"  as  translated  into  Latin  b\-  Rufinus: 
"  The  end  of  the  world,  then,  and  the  final  consummation, 
will  take  place  when  every  one  shall  be  subjected  to  pun- 
ishment for  his  sins  ;  a  time  which  God  alone  knows,  when 
he  will  bestow  on  each  one  what  he  deserves.  We  think, 
indeed,  that  the  goodness  of  God,  through  his  Christ,  may 
recall  all  his  creatures  to  one  end,'-  even  his  enemies  being 
conquered  and  subdued.  For  thus  says  holy  Scripture, 
'  The  Lord  said  to  my  Lord,  Sit  thou  at  my  right  hand, 
until  I  make  thine  enemies  thy  footstool.'  And  if  the 
meaning  of  the  prophet's  language  here  be  less  clear,  we 
may  ascertain  it  from  the  Apostle  Paul,  who  speaks  more 
openly,  thus:  '  For  Christ  must  reign  until  he  has  put  all 
enemies  under  his  feet.'  But  if  even  that  unreserved  dec- 
laration of  the  Apostle  do  not  sufficiently  inform  us  v/hat 
is  meant  by  '  enemies  being  placed  under  his  feet,'  listen 
to  what  he  says   in   the  following  words,  '  I^^or  all    tilings 

1  "  Niccne  and  Post-Nicene  Fathers,"  second  series,  vol.  iii.,  p.   s"!^- 

2  The  late  Rev.  Dr.  Ilosea  Ballon,  2d,  rendered  this  passat^e,  "  will  cer- 
tainly restore  all  creatures  into  one  final  state." 


.  ORIGEN.  267 

must  be  put  under  him.'  What,  then,  is  this  '  puttins^-  un- 
der '  by  which  all  things  must  be  made  subject  to  Christ? 
I  am  of  opinion  that  it  is  this  very  subjection  by  which  we 
also  wish  to  be  subject  to  him,  by  which  the  apostles  also 
were  subject,  and  all  the  saints  who  have  been  followers 
of  Christ.  For  the  name  '  subjection,'  by  which  we  are 
subject  to  Christ,  indicates  that  the  salvation  which  pro- 
ceeds from  him  belongs  to  his  subjects,  agreeably  to  the 
declaration  of  David,  '  Shall  not  my  soul  be  subject  unto 
God?     From  him  cometh  my  salvation.'  "^ 

Origen  then  gc^es  on  to  connect  this  doctrine  with  that 
of  the  precxistcnce  of  souls,  contemj)lating  the  end  first 
described  in  its  relation  to  the  beginning,  from  which  spring 
"  many  differences  and  varieties,  which  again,  through  the 
goodness  of  God  and  by  subjection  to  Christ  and  through 
the  unity  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  are  recalled  to  one  end,  which 
is  like  unto  the  beginning:  all  those,  \iz.,  \\ho,  bending  the 
knee  at  the  name  of  Jesus,  make  known  by  so  doing  their 
subjection  to  him:  and  these  are  they  who  are  in  heaven, 
on  earth  and  under  the  earth:  by  which  three  classes  the 
whole  universe  of  tilings  is  pointed  out.  .  .  .  From  all 
which,  I  am  of  opinion,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  that  this  order 
of  the  human  race  has  been  appointed  in  order  that  in  the 
future  "vvorld,  or  in  ages  to  come,  when  there  shall  be  the 
new  heavens  and  new  earth,  .v.poken  of  by  Isaiah,  it  may 
be  restored  to  that  unity  promised  by  the  Lord  Jesus  in 
his  prayer  to  God  the  Father  on  behalf  of  his  disciples :  '  I 
do  not  pray  for  these  alone,  but  for  all  who  shall  believe 
on  me  through  their  word:  that  they  all  may  be  one,  as 
thou,  I'^ither,  art  in  me,  and  I  in  thee,  thai  they  also  may 
be  one  in  us;'  and  again,  when  lu:  sa\-s :  'That  they  may 
be  one,  even  as  we  arc  one  ;  I  in  them,  and  thou  in  me, 
that  they  may  l)e  made  perfect  in  one.'  "- 

1  "  Tlic  Anti'-Niccnc  Falluis,"  vnl.  iv.,  p.  260.  -  //'/</.,  p.  260  f. 


268  THE   UNI  VERSA  LISTS.  [Chap.  i. 

So,  farther  on,  as  an  addendum  to  what  he  here  says, 
he  giv^es  us  the  following": 

"  If  we  now  assert  that  God  is  everywhere  and  in  all 
things,  on  the  ground  that  nothing  can  be  empty  of  God, 
we  nevertheless  do  not  say  that  he  is  now  '  all  things '  in 
those  in  whom  he  is.  And  hence  we  must  look  more 
carefully  as  to  what  that  is  which  denotes  the  perfection 
of  blessedness  and  the  end  of  things,  which  is  not  only  said 
to  be  God  in  all  things,  but  also  '  all  in  all'  Let  us  then 
inquire  what  all  those  things  are  which  God  is  to  become 
in  all. 

"  I  am  of  opinion  that  the  expression  by  which  God  is 
said  to  be  '  all  in  all,'  means  that  he  is  '  all'  in  each  indi- 
vidual person.  Now  he  will  be  '  all '  in  each  individual 
in  this  way  :  when  all  which  any  rational  understanding, 
cleansed  from  the  dregs  of  every  sort  of  vice,  and  with 
every  cloud  of  wickedness  completely  swept  away,  can 
either  feel,  or  understand,  or  think,  will  be  wholly  God  ; 
and  when  it  will  no  longer  behold  or  retain  anything  else 
than  God,  but  when  God  will  be  the  measure  and  standard 
of  all  its  movements ;  and  thus  God  will  be  all,  for  there 
will  no  longer  be  any  distinction  of  good  and  evil,  seeing 
evil  nowhere  exists ;  for  God  is  all  tilings,  and  to  him  no 
evil  is  near;  nor  will  there  be  any  longer  a  desire  to  eat 
from  the  tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  on  the 
part  of  him  who  is  always  in  the  possession  of  good,  and 
to  whom  God  is  all.  So  that,  when  the  end  has  been  re- 
stored tt)  the  beginning,  and  the  termination  of  things  com- 
pared with  their  commencement,  that  condition  of  things 
will  be  reestablished  in  which  rational  nature  was  placed, 
when  it  had  nc^  need  to  eat  of  the  tree  of  the  knowledge 
of  good  and  evil ;  so  that  when  all  feeling  of  wickedness 
has  been  removed,  and  the  indixidual  has  been  purified 
and  cleansed,  he  who  alone  is  the  one  good  God  becomes 


OR  I G  EX.  269 

to  him  '  all,'  and  that  not  in  the  case  of  a  few  individuals, 
or  of  a  considerable  mnnher,  but  he  himself  is  '  all  in  all.' 
And  when  death  shall  no  lonj^i-r  an\\\here  exist,  nor  the 
stini(  of  death,  nor  an}-  e\il  al  all,  then  \enl\-  God  will  be 
'allin  all.'"^ 

Rufinus  makes  Oriyen  say  of  what  is  set  forth  in  the 
foret^oing"  quotation  from  pp.  260,  261,  that  he  treats  the 
subject  "  in  the  manner  rather  of  an  investii;;^ation  and  dis- 
cussion, than  in  that  of  lixed  and  certain  decision.  l"'or 
we  ha\x'  pointed  out  in  the  jjreceding'  pages  those  questions 
which  must  be  set  forth  in  clear  dot^matic  propositions, 
as  I  think  has  l)een  done  to  the  best  of  \w\  ability  when 
speakiui,^  of  the  Trinity.  But  on  the  present  occasion  our 
exercise  is  to  be  conducted,  as  we  best  ma}',  in  the  style 
of  a  disinitation  rather  than  of  strict  definition."- 

If  we  bear  in  mind  that  a  leading  object  in  Rufinus' 
translation  was  to  make  Origen  appear  to  be  orthodox  on 
the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  and  that  in  this,  according  to 
Jerome,  he  did  not  translate,  but  invent,^  we  shall  not  be 
unjust  in  the  suspicion  that  he  has  not  translated,  but  has 
invented,  the  abo\-e.  If  we  also  bear  in  mind  that  Origen's 
theory  of  preexistence  was  never  tentatively  licld  by  him, 
but  was  all-controlling  in  its  influence  on  his  thoughts  and 
opinions,  we  shall  be  justified  in  saying  that  what  he  has 
said  of  "  the  end  being  like  the  beginning"  was  as  firm  a 
conviction  as  any  that  he  declared  on  any  subject.  Or,  if 
we  give  the  benefit  of  the  doubt -to  Rufinus,  we  may  well 
heed  the  admonition  of  Dr.  Crombie,  that  "  the  '  De  I'lin- 
cipiis,'  it  must  not  be  forgotten,  was  ncjt  the  product  of 
the  author's  mature  mind."^      If  he  has  abandoned  or  con- 

1  "The  Ante-Niccne  Katlurs,"  vol.  iv.,  p.  345.  ^  Ilnd.,  p.  260. 

3  "  Nicene  and  rost-Nicene  l''atlicrs,"  first  series,  vol.  ii.,  jtp.  501-51S. 
Origan  was  a  believer  in  tlie  suhorilination  of  the  Son  to  the  Father.  See 
"  Nicene  and  Post-Niccnc  Fathers,"  second  series,  vol.  i.,  p.  14. 

*  Footnote  to  his  translation  of  the  work  "  The  Ante-Nicene  Fathers," 
vol.  iv.,  p.  359. 


270  THE    UXIVERSALISrS.  [Chai\  i. 

tradicted  this  Universalism  in  any  later  production,  it  is  of 
little  consequence  whether  he  held  it  here  as  a  conjecture, 
or  as  a  positive  conviction. 

But  he  neither  contradicted  nor  abandoned  it.  It  was 
his  settled  conviction  and  he  expressed  it  in  unambiguous 
terms.  In  his  "  Homilies  "  and  his  "  Commentaries  "  he 
avows  his  belief  in  the  end  of  sin  and  the  sahation  of  all 
souls.  In  his  "  Homily  on  Leviticus,"  written  from  fifteen 
to  twenty  years  after  the  "  De  Principiis,"  in  an  extended 
passage,  in  which  he  represents  Christ  as  waiting  for  us 
to  be  converted,  lie  says:  "He  is  expecting  joy.  When 
does  he  expect  it?  When,  says  he,  I  shall  have  finished 
my  work.  When  will  he  finish  his  work?  When  he  shall 
have  perfected  me,  who  am  the  last  and  the  worst  of  sinners, 
then  he  will  finish  his  work.  For  his  work  is  still  unfinished 
wliile  I  remain  imperfect.  While  I  am  not  subjected  to 
tile  Father  lie  is  not  subject  to  the  Father.  Not  that  he 
himself  is  wanting  in  subjection  to  God,  but  for  my  sake, 
in  whom  his  work  is  not  yet  finished,  he  is  said  to  be  not 
subjected.  .  .  .  But  when  he  shall  have  finished  his  work 
and  brought  his  whole  creation  to  the  height  of  perfection, 
then  is  he  said  to  be  subject  to  the  Father,  in  those  whom 
he  has  subjected  to  the  Father,  and  in  whom  the  work  his 
Father  gave  him  to  do  is  finished,  that  God  may  be  all  in 
alL"^ 

In  the  fifth  book  of  his  "  Commentaries  on  Romans," 
written  about  A. I).  246,  he  sa}s  : 

"  We  assert  that  the  power  of  the  cross  of  Christ  and  of 
his  death,  suffered  once  in  the  end  of  the  world,  is  sufficient 
for  the  cure  and  health,  not  only  of  the  present  and  future, 
but  even  of  past  ages,  and  not  only  for  our  human  race, 
but  even  for  the  celestial  orders  and  powers ;  for,  accord- 
ing to  the  opinion  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  Christ  by  the  blood 

1   Seventh  Homily. 


OA'/CE.Y.  271 

of  his  cross  has  reconciled  not  only  the  thini4S  which  arc  in 
the  earth,  but  also  the  things  which  are  in  heaven."  To 
prove  that  though  free  the  soul  will  not  again  run  into  sin, 
he  quotes  the  words  of  the  Apostle,  "  Love  never  faileth," 
and  adds :  "  If  the  soul  shall  rise  to  that  degree  of  per- 
fection that  it  will  love  God  with  all  its  heart,  and  all  its 
powers,  and  all  its  mind,  and  its  neighbor  as  itself,  what 
place  will  there  be  for  sin  ?  "  He  also  quotes  the  language 
of  St.  John,  that,  "  He  tliat  dwelleth  in  love  dwelleth  in 
God,"  and  adds:  "Therefore  that  love  which  alone  is 
greater  than  all  will  preser\-e  every  creature  from  falling. 
Then  shall  God  be  all  in  all."  1 

In  his  treatise  against  Celsus,  written  A.T).  248  or  249, 
are  two  striking  passages.  Celsus,  a  heathen  philosopher, 
had  attacked  Christianity,  ami  among  other  charges  which 
he  brought  against  Christians  was  this,  that  they  repre- 
sented God  as  a  torturer,  "  descending  on  the  wicked  like 
a  tormentor,  armed  with  fire"  To  which  Origen  replies: 
"  As  it  is  in  mockery  that  Celsus  says  we  speak  of  '  God 
coming  dowai  like  a  torturer  bearing  fire,'  and  thus  com- 
pels us  unseasonably  to  investigate  words  of  deeper  mean- 
ing, we  shall  make  a  few  remarks,  sufficient  to  enable  our 
hearers  to  form  an  idea  of  the  defense  which  disposes  of 
tile  ridicule  of  Celsus  against  us,  and  then  we  shall  turn  to 
what  follows.  The  di\ine  Word  says  that  our  God  is  '  a 
consuming  fire,'  and  that  '  he  draws  rivers  of  fire  before 
iiim  '  ;  na}-,  that  he  even  entereth  in  as  '  a  refiner's  fire,  and 
as  a  fuller's  herb,'  to  purify  his  own  people.  But  when  he 
is  said  to  be  a  'consuming  fire,'  we  inquire  what  are  the 
things  which  are  appropriate  to  be  consumed  b)-  God.  And 
we  assert  that  they  are  wickedness,  and  the  works  which 

1  Lommatzsch's  edition,  vol.  vi.,  pp.  407-413.  See  also  his  Commen- 
tary on  John  i.  36;  xii.  31,  32;  Kph.  i.  10;  Coll.  i.  20;  Philip,  ii.  9,  10; 
Iloin.  viii.  an<l  xix.  on  Jcrcmiali. 


272  TJ/E    LWnERSALLSrS.  [CiiAr.  i. 

result  from  it,  and  which,  being-  figuratively  called  '  wood, 
hay,  and  stubble,'  God  consumes  as  a  fire.  The  wicked 
man,  acccjrdingly,  is  said  to  build  up  on  the  previously  laid 
foundation  of  reason,  '  wood  and  hay  and  stubble.'  If, 
then,  any  one  can  show  that  these  words  were  difTerently 
understood  by  the  writer  and  can  pro\'e  that  the  wicked 
man  literally  builds  up  '  wood  or  hay  or  stubble,'  it  is  evi- 
dent that  the  fire  must  be  understood  to  be  material  and 
an  object  of  sense.  But  if,  on  the  contrar)-,  the  works  of 
the  wicked  man  are  spoken  oi  figuratively  under  the  names 
of '  wood  or  hay  or  stubble,'  why  does  it  not  at  once  occur 
in  what  sense  the  word  '  fire  '  is  to  be  taken,  so  that  '  wocxl ' 
of  such  a  kind  should  be  consumed  ?  For  the  Scripture 
says:  '  The  fire  will  try  each  man's  work  of  what  sort  it  is. 
If  any  man's  work  abide  which  he  hath  built  thereupon, 
he  shall  recei\e  a  reward.  If  any  man's  work  be  burned, 
he  shall  suffer  loss.'  But  what  work  can  be  spoken  of  in 
these  words  as  being  'burnetl,'  sa\e  all  that  results  from 
wickedness?  Therefore  our  God  is  a  '  consuming  fire  '  in 
the  sense  in  which  we  have  taken  the  word  ;  and  thus  he 
enters  in  as  a  '  refiner's  fire,'  to  refine  the  rational  nature, 
which  has  been  filled  with  the  lead  of  wickedness,  and  to 
free  it  from  the  other  impure  materials  which  adulterate 
the  natural  gold  or  silver,  so  to  .speak,  of  the  soul.  And, 
in  like  manner,  '  rivers  of  fire  '  are  said  to  be  before  God, 
who  will  thoroughly  cleanse  away  the  e\'il  which  is  inter- 
mineled  throughout  the  whole  soul."' 

Again,  Celsus  had  ridiculed  the  Christian  idea  that  "  all 
the  inhabitants  of  Asia,  Europe,  and  Libya,  Greeks  and 
Barbarians,  all  to  the  uttermost  ends  of  the  earth  were 
to  come  under  one  law,"  and  had  added:  "Any  one 
who  thinks  this  possible,  knows  nothing."  To  which  Ori- 
gen  replies:  "It  would  require  careful  consideration  and 

1  "  The  Antc-Nicene  Fathers,"  vol.  iv.,  p.  502. 


ORIGEN.  273 

lengthened  argument  to  prove  that  it  is  not  only  possible, 
but  that  it  will  surely  come  to  pass,  that  all  who  are  en- 
dowed with  reason  shall  come  under  one  law.  However, 
if  we  must  refer  to  this  subject,  it  will  be  with  great  brevity. 
The  Stoics,  indeed,  hold  that,  when  the  strongest  of  the 
elements  prevails,  all  things  shall  be  turned  into  fire.  But 
our  belief  is,  that  the  Word  shall  prevail  over  the  entire 
rational  creation,  and  change  every  soul  into  his  own  per- 
fection ;  in  which  state  every  one,  by  the  mere  exercise  of 
his  power,  will  choose  what  he  desires  and  obtain  what  he 
chooses.  For  although,  in  the  diseases  and  wounds  of  the 
bod}-,  tliere  are  some  which  no  medical  skill  can  cure,  yet 
we  hold  that  in  the  mind  there  is  no  evil  so  strong  that  it 
may  not  be  overcome  by  the  supreme  Word  and  God.  For 
stronger  than  all  the  c\  ils  in  llic  soul  is  the  Word  and  the 
healing  power  that  dwells  in  him ;  and  this  healing  he 
applies,  according  to  the  will  of  God,  to  every  man.  The 
consummation  (^f  all  tilings  is  the  destruction  of  evil,  al- 
though as  to  the  question  whether  it  shall  be  so  destroyed 
that  it  can  never  anywhere  arise  again,  it  is  beyond  our 
present  purpose  to  sa}-.  Many  things  are  said  obscurely 
in  the  j^rophccies  on  the  total  destruction  of  evil,  and  the 
restoration  to  righteousness  of  every  soul ;  but  it  will  be 
enough  for  our  present  purpose  to  cjuote  the  following 
passage  from  Zephaniah:  '  Prepare  and  rise  early;  all  the 
gleanings  of  their  vineyards  are  destroyed.  Therefore 
wait  ye  ujjon  me,  saith  the  Lord,  on  the  day  that  I  rise 
up  for  a  testimony;  for  my  determination  is  to  gather  the 
nations,  that  I  may  assemble  the  kings,  to  pour  upon  them 
mine  indignation,  e\cn  all  m\-  fierce  anger:  for  all  the  earth 
shall  be  de\oured  with  the  fire  of  my  jealousy.  For  then 
will  I  turn  to  the  people  a  pure  language,  that  they  may 
all  call  ui)on  the  name  of  the  LoKD,  to  serve  him  with  one 
consent,      k'rom   bej'ond   the   ri\ers  of   ICthiopia  my  sup- 


2  74  ^'^^^'    U^'^'^VI^l^SALISTS.  [Chap.  i. 

pliaiits,  even  the  daughter  of  my  dispersed,  shall  bring  my 
offering.  In  that  day  shalt  thou  not  be  ashamed  for  all 
thy  doings,  wherein  thou  hast  transgressed  against  me :  for 
then  I  will  take  away  out  of  the  midst  of  thee  them  that 
rejoice  in  thy  pride  ;  and  thou  shalt  no  more  be  haughty 
because  of  my  holy  mountain.  I  will  also  leave  in  the 
midst  of  thee  an  afflicted  and  poor  people,  and  they  shall 
trust  in  the  name  of  the  LoRD.  The  remnant  of  Israel 
shall  not  do  iniquity,  nor  speak  lies ;  neither  shall  a  deceit- 
ful tongue  be  found  in  their  mouth  :  for  they  shall  feed 
and  lie  down,  and  none  shall  make  them  afraid.'  I  leave 
it  to  those  who  are  able,  after  a  careful  study  of  the  whole 
subject,  to  unfold  the  meaning  of  this  prophecy,  and 
especially  to  inquire  into  the  significance  of  the  words, 
'  When  the  whole  earth  is  destroyed,  there  will  be  turned 
upon  the  peoples  a  language  according  to  their  race ' 
[Bouhereau  translates  this,  "  A  language  to  last  as  long  as 
the  world  "],  as  things  were  before  the  confusion  of  tongues. 
Let  them  also  carefully  consider  the  promise  that  all  shall 
call  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord  and  serve  him  with  one 
consent ;  also  that  all  contemptuous  reproach  shall  be  taken 
away,  and  there  shall  be  no  longer  any  injustice,  or  vain 
speech,  or  a  deceitful  tongue.  And  thus  much  it  seemed 
needful  for  me  to  say  briefly,  and  without  entering  into 
elaborate  details,  in  answer  to  the  remark  of  Celsus,  that 
he  considered  any  agreement  between  the  inhabitants  of 
Asia,  Europe,  and  Libya,  as  well  Greeks  as  Barbarians, 
was  impossible.  And  perhaps  such  a  result  would  indeed 
be  impossible  to  those  who  are  still  in  the  body,  but  not 
to  those  who  are  released  from  it."  ^ 

In  addition  to  the  Scripture  quoted  or  referred  to  in  any 
of  the  foregoing  extracts  from  his  writings,  Origen  uses 
in  illustration  and   defense    of  his   Unixersalism    the   fol- 

1  "  The  Ante-Niccne  Fatlicrs,"  vol.  iv.,  p.  667. 


OK  I  GEN.  275 

lowini^  passages:  Psalm  xxi.  19;  Ixxviii.  30-35;  ex.  i,  2; 
Isaiah  iv.  4 ;  xii.  i,  2;  xxiv.  21-23;  xlvii.  14;  Ezekiel  xvi. 
53-55  ;  Hosea  xiv.  3,  4  ;  Micah  vii.  8,  9 ;  Malachi  iii.  2,  3  ; 
Matt.  V.  26;  xviii.  12,  13;  John  x.  16;  Romans  viii.  20- 
23;  xi.  25,  26,  32;  I  Coruithians  xv.  54;  Ephesians  i.  9, 
10;  ii.  7;  iv.  13;  i  Timothy  iv.  10.  These  are  the  ]jrin- 
cipal  texts  commented  on,  but  there  are  many  others, 
especially  in  the  Ep*istle  to  the  Romans.  Commenting^  on 
chapter  vi.,  he  states  the  arguments  used  for  the  idea  of 
a  fall  hereafter  in  heaven.  In  his  reply  he  says :  "  Free- 
will indeed  remains,  but  the  power  of  the  cross  suffices  for 
all  orders  and  all  ages,  past  and  to  come.  And  that  free- 
will will  not  lead  to  sin  is  plain,  because  love  never  faileth, 
and  when  God  is  lo\'ed  with  all  the  heart,  and  soul,  and 
mind,  and  strength,  and  our  neighbor  as  ourselves,  where 
is  the  place  for  sin?  "  So  on  chapter  viii.,  35-39,  "  Who 
shall  separate  us,"  etc.,  he  says:  "  If  all  these  cannot  sep- 
arate us  from  the  love  of  God,  much  more  free-will  cannot 
separate  us.  For  though  that  power  remains,  yet  the 
power  of  love  is  so  great  that  it  will  subordinate  all  things 
to  itself,  especially  since  God  has  first  given  us  such  causes 
of  lo\-e."  Explaining  Romans  xi.  26,  27,  where  Paul  calls 
the  salvation  of  all  Israel  and  the  Gentile  world  a  mystery, 
he  takes  particular  notice  of  that  word,  then  gives  a  general 
statement  of  the  universal  reach  of  the  salvation  spoken  of, 
and  adds:  "  Nevertheless,  we  ought  always  to  remember 
that  the  Apostle  would  have  the  text  now  under  consid- 
eration regarded  as  a  mystery;  so  that  the  faithful  ami 
thoroughly  instructed  should  conceal  its  meaning  amcMig 
themselves,  as  a  mystery  of  God,  nor  obtrude  it  every- 
where upon  tlie  imperfect  and  those  of  less  capacity."  As 
already  noted,  he  often  deviated  from  his  own  ad\-ice  ;  and, 
as  we  shall  presently  see,  his  pupils  and  others  who  taught 
Universalism  on  a  different  basis  from  that  on  which  he 


276  THE    UXIVERSAUSTS.  [Chap.  i. 

placed  it,  were  bold  in  their  advocacy.  But  it  is  well 
to  bear  in  mind  that  it  was  a  common  rule  of  Christian 
teachers  in  that  age  to  use  much  caution  in  avowing  other 
tenets,  particularly  those  concerning  Antichrist  and  the 
near  approach  of  the  end  of  the  world.  The  form  of  the 
creed  and  the  rites  of  the  Lord's  Supper  were  concealed,  as 
mysteries,  from  the  uninitiated.  Indeed,  within  the  church 
itself  there  was  a  series  of  doctrines  'appropriated  to  the 
maturer  believers  and  withheld  from  the  less-disciplined 
members.  1  Origen's  application  of  the  rule  to  Universal- 
ism  was  therefore  not  an  exceptional  use  of  it,  and  has  no 
significance  that  did  not  also  attach  to  its  use  elsewhere. 

Gregory  (a.d.  205-265)  was  an  eminent  pupil  of  Ori- 
gen,  and  his  writings  that  have  come  down  to  us  are  mea- 
ger and  do  not  bear  on  this  subject;  but  Rufinus,  speak- 
ing of  Universalism,  says  that  "  Gregory  Thaumaturgus 
erred  with  Origen." 

Methodius  (a.]).  260-312)  wrote  against  Origen's  doc- 
trines of  preexistence  and  of  the  resurrection,  but  lias 
notliing  to  say  against  his  Uni\ersalism.  In  his  "  Dis- 
course on  the  Resurrection,"  in  which  he  argues  for  the 
resurrection  of  the  body,  he  takes  ground  which  seems  to 
necessitate  his  belief  in  Universalism.  He  says  that :  "  In 
order  that  man  might  not  be  an  undying  or  ever-living 
evil,  as  would  have  been  the  case  if  sin  were  dominant 
within  him,  as  it  had  sprung  up  in  an  immortal  body,  and 
was  provided  with  immortal  sustenance,  God  for  this  cause 
pronounced  him  mortal  and  clothed  him  with  mortality. 
For  this  is  what  was  meant  by  the  coats  of  skins,  in  order 
that,  by  the  dissolution  of  the  body,  sin  might  be  altogether 
destroyed  by  the  roots,  that  there  might  not  be  left  e\'en 
the  smallest  particle  of  root  from  which  new  shoots  of  sin 
might  again  burst  forth.   .   .   .   No  one  can  boast  of  being 

1   Mosheim's  "  Historical  Commentaries,"  vol.  i.,  pp.  372-380. 


METHODIUS. 


277 


SO  free  from  sin  as  not  even  to  have  an  evil  tiioLr^ht. 
.  .  .  But  hereafter  the  very  thought  of  e\-il  will  disap- 
pear. .  .  .  God,  seeing"  man,  his  fairest  work,  corrupted  by 
envious  treachery,  he  could  not  endure,  with  his  love  for 
man,  to  leave  him  in  such  a  condition,  lest  he  should  be 
fore\-er  faulty,  and  bear  the  blame  for  eternity  ;  but  dis- 
solved him  again  into  his  original  materials,  in  order  that, 
by  remodeling,  all  the  blemishes  in  him  might  waste  away 
and  disappear,  h'or  the  melting  down  of  the  statue  in  the 
former  case  corresponds  to  the  death  and  dissolution  of 
the  body  in  the  latter,  and  the  remolding  of  the  material 
in  the  former  to  the  resurrection  after  death  in  the  latter. 
.  .  .  For  I  call  your  attention  to  this,  that  after  man's 
transgression  the  Great  Hand  was  not  content  to  leave 
as  a  trophy  of  victory  its  own  work,  debased  by  the  \\\\\ 
One,  who  wickedly  injured  it  from  motives  of  envy;  but 
moistened  and  reduced  it  to  clay,  as  a  potter  breaks  up  a 
vessel,  that  by  the  remodeling  of  it  all  the  blemishes  and 
bruises  in  it  may  disappear,  and  it  may  be  made  afresh 
faultless  and  pleasing."  Elsewhere,  in  another  fragment 
of  the  "  Book  on  the  Resurrection  "  :  "  Goil  had  images  of 
himself  made  as  of  gold — that  is,  of  a  purer  spiritual  sub- 
stance, as  the  angels;  and  others  of  clay  or  brass,  as  our- 
selves. He  united  the  soul  which  was  made  in  the  image 
of  God  to  that  which  was  earthy.  As,  then,  we  must  here 
honor  all  the  images  of  a  king,  on  account  of  the  form  that 
is  in  them,  so  also  it  is  incretlible  that  we  who  arc  the 
images  of  God  should  be  altogether  destroyed  as  being 
without  honor."  ' 

Pamphilus,  educated  in  the  school  at  Alexandria,  and 

a  learned  presbyter  of  Caisarea,  in  Palestine,  was  a  special 

teacher  of  biblical  exposition.      Thrown  into  prison  during 

the  persecutions  by  Diocletian,  A.D.  307,  he  wrote  betw-een 

1  "The  Ante-Nicene  Fathers,"  vol.  vi.,  pp.  364,  365,  378. 


278  THE    UNJIEKSALISJS.  [Chap.  i. 

that  time  and  his  martyrdom,  A.D.  309,  an  "  Apology  for 
Origen."  In  this  he  was  assisted  by  Eusebius,  a  fellow- 
presbyter,  and  the  church  historian.  With  the  exception 
of  the  first  book,  this  Apology,  or  Defense,  has  perished. 
From  what  remains,  however,  we  learn  what  were  the 
charges  then  brought  against  Origen  by  his  enemies.  The 
seventh  in  the  list  of  nine  is  thus  slated:  "They  calum- 
niously  attack  him  on  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  and  the 
punishment  of  the  impious  ;  accusing  him  of  denying  that 
torments  are  to  be  inflicted  on  sinners."  In  reply  Pam- 
philus  and  Eusebius  select,  to  indorse  as  true,  among  other 
testimonies  afforded  by  Origen' s  works,  two  distinct  para- 
graphs, in  which  he  had,  as  usual,  spoken  of  torments  to 
be  hereafter  inflicted  by  fire ;  but  in  which  he,  at  the  same 
time,  represented  them  as  altogether  remedial.  "  We  are 
to  understand,"  said  he,  "  that  God,  our  phj^sician,  in  order 
to  remove  those  disorders  which  our  souls  contract  from 
various  sins  and  abominations,  uses  that  painful  mode  of 
cure,  and  brings  those  torments  of  fire  upon  such  as  have 
lost  the  health  of  the  soul,  just  as  an  earthly  physician,  in 
extreme  cases,  subjects  his  patients  to  cautery.  .  .  .  And 
Isaiah  teaches  that  the  punishment  said  to  be  inflicted  b\' 
fire  is  very  needful ;  saying  of  Israel,  '  The  Lord  shall  wash 
away  the  filth  of  the  sons  and  daughters  of  Zion,  and  jjurge 
the  blood  from  their  midst  by  the  .spirit  of  judgment,  and 
the  spirit  of  burning.'  " 

Concerning  the  Universalism  of  luisebiiie,  Jerome  charges 
that  in  his  Commentaries  on  Isaiah  he  "  yields  himself  up 
to  the  tenets  of  Origen."  A  recent  writer  has  the  follow- 
ing on  the  views  of  Eusebius: 

"  Commenting  on  Psalms  ii.,  he  says  :  '  The  Son's  break- 
ing in  pieces  '  his  enemies  is  for  the  sake  of  remolding"  them, 
as  a  potter  his  own  work ;  as  Jeremiah  x\iii.  6  says,  i.e., 
to  restore  them  once  more  to  their  former  state."     "  P^ven 


MARCELLUS.  279 

the  impious,  when  the  day  of  the  Lord  arrives,  .  .  .  shall 
cast  forth  and  fling  away  every  false  opinion  of  their  mind 
with  regard  to  idols."  In  Isaiah  li.  22  :  "  Christ  will  there- 
fore subject  to  himself  cvcrythijig  (the  universe),  and  this 
saving  subjection  it  is  right  to  regard  as  similar  to  that 
according  to  which  the  Son  himself  shall  be  subjected  unto 
him  who  subjected  to  himself  all  things.  .  .  .  But  after 
the  close  of  everything  he  will  not  dwell  in  a  few,  but  in 
all  those  who  are  then  worthy  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 
So  then  shall  come  to  pass  (God's  being)  all  in  all,  when 
he  inhabits  as  his  people  all  (absolutely,  tons pantas).  '  Ue 
Kccles.  Theol.,'  vol.  iii.,  p.  16."' 

Marcellus,  Bishop  of  Ancyra  in  Galatia,  about  A.D.  330, 
opposed  Origen's  views  of  the  Trinit}-,  but  was  ne\ertheless 
a  Universalist,  on  different  grounds  from  those  of  Origen. 
Neander  says  that  he  held  that :  "  The  entire  human  ap- 
pearance [manifestation  ( ?)]  of  Christ  had  for  its  object 
to  manifest  God  to  the  sensible  nature  of  man,  to  elevate 
man  to  God  and  to  a  participation  in  the  divine  life,  and 
to  procure  for  him  the  \'ictory  o\-cr  sin.  Until  this  object 
should  be  attained,  the  separate  kingdom  of  Christ,  grow- 
ing out  of  this  particular  acti\-ity  of  the  Logos,  was  to 
endure.  But  as  soon  as  the  object  was  attained,  God 
would,  withdraw  back  into  himself  this  efficiency  of  the 
Logos,  which  had  emanated  from  him;  and  the  separate 
kingdom  of  Christ,  therewith  connected,  would  again  re- 
solve itself  into  the  one  universal,  eternal  kingdom  of  God 
the  Father — all  which,  as  he  supposed,  could  be  shown 
from  I  Corinthians  XV.  28."" 

Didymus  the  blind,  .A.D.  309-394,  one  of  the  later  presi- 
dents of  the  school   in  Alexandria,  who  is  declared  by 

1  "  Universalisni  Asserted,"  Allin,  p.  112. 

2  "  General    History   of   tlie    Cliristian    Religion  and  Cluircli,"    vol.  ii., 
p.  425  f. 


28o  THE    UNIVEKSALISTS.  [Ciiai'.  i. 

Rufinus  to  have  been  "  the  most  open  champion  of  Ori- 
gen  "  and  adherent  to  and  defender  of  all  his  views  except 
those  on  the  Trinity/  says  in  his  Commentary  on  i  Peter 
iii. — about  all  that  remains  to  us  of  his  writings:  "  Man- 
kind, being  reclaimed  from  their  sins,  are  to  be  subjected 
to  Christ  in  the  fullness  of  the  dispensation  instituted  for 
the  salvation  of  all." 

Titus,  Bishop  of  Bostra,  in  Arabia,  named  by  Jerome  as 
"one  of  the  most  important  church  writers  of  his  time," 
in  his  books  "  Against  the  Manicheans  " — all  that  has  sur- 
vived from  his  pen — written,  it  is  thought,  about  A.D.  364, 
says  that  the  "  abyss  of  hell  is,  indeed,  the  place  of  tor- 
ment ;  but  it  is  not  eternal,  nor  did  it  exist  in  the  original 
constitution  of  nature.  It  was  made  afterward,  as  a  rem- 
edy for  sinners,  that  it  might  cure  them.  And  the  pun- 
ishments are  holy,  as  they  are  remedial  and  salutary  in 
their  effect  on  transgressors ;  for  they  are  inflicted  not  to 
preserve  them  in  their  wickedness  but  to  make  them  cease 
from  their  wickedness.  The  anguish  of  their  suffering  com- 
pels them  to  break  ofT  their  vices."- 

Passing  by  Victorinus,  Jerome,  Basil,  Athauasius,  Hilary, 
Gregory  Nazianzen,  and  others — who  seem  at  times  to 
have  taught  Universalism,  and  again,  to  have  taught  its 
opposite — as  also  others  of  lesser  fame  whose  Universalism 
is  unquestioned,  we  come  to  Gregory  Nyssen,  the  brother 
of  Basil  the  Great.  The  doctrine  of  universal  restoration, 
says  Neander,  "  was  expounded  and  maintained  with  the 
greatest  logical  ability  and  acuteness,  in  works  written 
expressly  for  that  purpose  by  Gregory  of  Nyssa.  God, 
he  maintained,  had  created  rational  beings  in  order  that 
they  might  be  self-conscious  and  free  vessels  and  recipi- 

1  "  Nicene  and  Post-Nicene  Fathers,"  second  series,  vol.  iii.,  pp.  4S6,  510. 

2  "  Ancient  History  of  Universalism,"  by  Hosea  Ballou,  D.D.,  2il,  p.  152. 
See  also  Migne,  vol.  .wiii.,  j>.   iiiS. 


GREGORY  NYSSEN.  28 1 

ents  for  the  communications  of  the  original  fountain  of  all 
good.  .  .  .  The  expressions  '  reward  '  and  '  punishment '  are 
but  inadequate  terms  to  denote  the  present  existence  or 
the  disturbance  of  this  harmony  of  relations;  just  as  when 
the  healthy  eye,  in  the  exercise  of  the  power  residing 
within  it,  perceives  objects  in  tlie  sunlight,  or  when  it  is 
prexented  from  so  doing  by  disease.  All  punishments  are 
means  of  purification,  ordained  by  dix'ine  love  with  a  view 
to  purge  rational  beings  from  moral  evil,  and  to  restore 
them  back  again  to  that  communion  with  God  which  cor- 
responds to  their  nature.  God  would  not  ha\'e  permitted 
the  existence  of  evil  unless  he  had  foreseen  that  by  the 
redemption  all  rational  beings  would,  in  the  end,  according 
to  their  destination,  attain  to  the  same  blessed  fellowship 
with  himself."  And  in  a  footnote  he  adds  that:  "  As  this 
doctrine  stands  so  closely  connected  with  Gregory's  whole 
system  of  faith,  it  belongs  among  the  worst  examples  of 
an  arbitrary  caprice,  regardless  of  history,  to  endeavor  to 
show  that  all  the  passages  in  Gregory's  writings  referring 
to  this  doctrine  were  interpolated  by  heretics,"  ^ 

Neander  mentions  as  among  the  works  which  Gregory 
wrote  for  the  express  purpose  of  teaching  Univensalism, 
"  his  exposition  of  i  Corinthians  xv.  2'^,  in  his  'Catechetical 
Oration,'  c.  8  and  35,  in  his  tract  on  the  soul  and  on  the 
resurrection,  and  his  tract  on  the  early  death  of  children." 
We  content  ourselves  with  an  extract,  "  On  the  Soul  and 
the  Resurrection."  As  to  questions  relating  to  the  Jioiv 
and  zvhcu  of  death,  and  the  character  of  mortal  life,  he 
says : 

"  But  whenever  the  time  comes  that  God  shall  have 
brought  our  nature  back  to  the   primal   state  of  man,  it 

1  "  History  of  Cliristian  Relitrion  and  Church,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  677.  To  tlie 
same  effect,  see  "  Nicene  and  Tost-Nicene  Fathers,"  second  series,  vol.  v., 
pp.  14  ff. 


282  THE    L'XIVERSALISrS.  [CiiAi'.  I. 

will  be  useless  to  talk  of  such  things  then,  and  to  imagine 
that  objections  based  upon  such  things  can  prove  God's 
power  to  be  impeded  in  arriving  at  his  end.  His  end  is 
one,  and  one  only  ;  it  is  this :  When  the  complete  whole 
of  our  race  shall  have  been  perfected,  from  the  first  man 
to  the  last — some  having  at  once  in  this  life  been  cleansed 
from  evil,  others  having  afterward,  in  the  necessary  periods, 
been  healed  by  the  Fire,  others  having  in  their  life  here 
been  unconscious  equally  of  good  and  of  evil — to  offer  to 
every  one  of  us  participation  in  the  blessings  which  are  in 
him,  which,  the  Scripture  tells  us,  '  eye  hath  not  seen,  nor 
ear  heard,'  nor  thought  ever  reached.  But  this  is  nothing 
else,  as  I  at  least  understand  it,  but  to  be  in  God  himself; 
for  the  Good  which  is  above  hearing  and  eye  and  heart 
must  be  that  Good  which  transcends  the  uni\-erse.  But 
the  difference  between  the  virtuous  and  vicious  life  led  at 
the  present  time  will  be  illustrated  in  this  way,  viz.,  in  the 
quicker  or  more  tardy  participation  of  each  in  that  prom- 
ised blessedness.  According  to  the  amount  of  the  ingrained 
wickedness  of  each  will  be  computed  the  duration  of  his 
cure.  This  cure  consists  in  the  cleansing  of  his  soul,  and 
that  cannot  be  achieved  without  an  excruciating  condition, 
as  has  been  expounded  in  our  previous  discussion."  ' 

In  the  above-named  work,  as  elsewhere,  Gregory  con- 
fesses great  indebtedness  to  his  sister,  the  .saintly  IVIacrina, 
with  whom,  when  she  was  near  unto  death,  he  lias  the 
conversation  which  makes  up  this  treatise  on  "  The  Soul 
and  the  Resurrection,"  and  what  we  have  just  quotctl  is 
given  as  her  words.  It  is  sometimes  difficult  to  determine 
which  is  her  part  and  which  is  his  own,  nor  docs  it  mat- 
ter, since  he  indorses  all  the  conclusions.  They  were  at 
one  in  their  views  on  destiny. 

Diodorus,  appointed  Bishop   of  Tarsus  A.D.  37S,  distin- 

1   "  NicLiie  and  Post-Niceiie  I'^itliers,"  second  series,  vol.  v.,  p.  465. 


DI  ODOR  us.  283 

guished  for  the  influence  which  he  exerted  in  tlie  Syrian 
churches,  was  of  the  Anliochian  School,  and  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  prevalent  allegorical  interpretation  of  Scripture 
he  adhered  to  the  natural  and  simple  import  of  the  text. 
Only  a  fragment  is  preserved  of  his  oncc  numerous  writ- 
ings, but  in  this  his  Universalism  is  manifest. 

"A  perpetual  reward, "  says  he,  "is  appointed  to  the 
good,  a  recompense  of  their  works,  which  is  worthy  the 
justice  and  equity  of  the  Rewarder.  V^yx  the  wicked,  also,  - 
there  are  punishments,  not  perpetu.il,  however,  lest  the 
immortality  prepared  for  them  should  become  a  disad- 
vantage ;  but  they  are  to  be  tormented  for  a  certain  brief 
period,  proportioned  to  the  desert  and  measure  of  their 
faults  and  impiety,  according  to  the  amount  of  malice  in 
their  works.  They  shall,  therefore,  suffer  punishment  for 
a  brief  space,  but  immortal  blessedness,  having  no  end, 
awaits  them.  For  if  the  rewards  of  the  good  surpass  their 
works  as  much  as  the  duration  of  the  eternity  prepared 
for  them  exceeds  the  duration  of  their  conflicts  in  this 
world,  so  the  punishments  to  be  inflicted  for  heinous  and 
m.'uiifold  sins  are  far  more  surpassed  by  the  magnitude  of 
mercy.  The  resurrection,  therefore,  is  regarded  as  a  bless- 
ing, not  only  to  the  good,  but  also  to  the  evil.  For  the 
grace  of  God  copiously  and  magnificently  honors  the  good 
[that  is,  beyond  tJicir  dcscrts\  ;  and  it  adjudges  punishments 
to  the  evil  in  mercy  and  kindness."^ 

The  ])revalence  of  Universalism  in  the  fourth  century 
is  unmistakably  evident.  Origenists  abounded,  and  many 
who  opposed  Origen  yet  advocated  Universalism  on  other 
grounds.  Of  the  six  theological  schools  in  the  Christian 
world,  in  one,  the  School  of  Northern  Africa,  the  doctrine 
of  the  eternal  punishment  of  the  sinful  was  taught;  one, 
the  School  of  Ephesus,  taught  the  doctrine  of  the  annihila- 

l   r.allou's  ".\ncicnt  IliNtnrynf  I'nivorsalisni,"  p.   iSi;. 


284  ^'^^^    UNI  VERSA  LISTS.  [Chap.  i. 

tion  of  the  wicked ;  four,  the  schools  at  Alexandria,  Caesa- 
rea,  Antioch,  Eastern  Syria — sometimes  held  at  Kdessa 
and  sometimes  at  Nisibis — taught  Universalism.'  Nean- 
der,  speaking-  of  two  of  these  schools,  says  that  from  them 
"  there  went  forth  an  opposition  to  the  doctrine  of  everlast- 
ing punishment,  which  had  its  ground  in  a  deeper  Christian 
interest  [than  that  in  which  it  was  elsewhere  manifest]  ; 
inasmuch  as  the  doctrine  of  a  universal  restoration  was 
closely  connected  \\\i\\  the  entire  dogmatic  systems  of  both 
these  schools,  namely,  that  of  Origen  and  the  school  of 
Antioch."-  Gieseler  says:  "The  belief  in  the  unalienable 
power  of  amendment  in  all  intelligent  beings  and  the  lim- 
ited duration  of  future  punishment  was  so  general  even 
in  the  West,  and  amongst  the  opponents  of  Origen,  that 
it  seemed  entirely  independent  of  his  system."  And  he 
adds  in  a  note  the  following,  from  "  Augustin.  Enchirid. 
ad  Laurent,"  c.  xii.  2  :  "  Some — nay,  very  many — from 
human  sympathy,  commiserate  the  eternal  punishment  of 
the  damned  and  their  perpetual  torture  without  intermis- 
sion, and  thus  do  not  believe  in  it ;  not,  indeed,  by  oppos- 
ing the  Holy  Scriptures,  but  by  softening  all  the  severe 
things  according  to  their  own  feelings,  and  giving  a  milder 
meaning  to  those  things  which  are  said  in  them  more  ter- 
ribly than  truly.  "^' 

Dr.  Beecher  bears  witness  that  "  all  who  held  to  uni- 
versal restoration  in  the  early  ages  were,  as  a  universally 
conceded  fact,  eminent  and  devoted  Christians.  Nor  is 
this  all.  They  were  peculiarly  distinguished  for  the  ex- 
cellence and  loveliness  of  their  Christian  character.  ...  It 
is  also  true  that  the  defenders  of  the  doctrine  of  restora- 


1  "  History  of  Opinions  on   the    Scriptural  Doctrine  of  Retribution,"  by 
Edward  Tleeclier,  I).]).,  chap.  xxii. 

2  "  History  of  Christian  Relit;ion  and  Church,"  vol.  ii.,  j).  676. 
^  "  Text-book  of  Ecclesiastical  History,"  vol.  i.,  \>.  212. 


rilEODOKE    OF  MOPSUESTIA.  285 

tion  were  not  exceeded  in  intellectual  power,  learning,  and 
Christian  character  by  any  men  of  the  age."^ 

Doederlein,  in  his  "  Institutes  of  Christian  Theology," 
says  that :  "  In  proportion  as  any  one  was  eminent  in  learn- 
ing in  Christian  Antiquity,  the  more  did  he  cherish  and 
defend  the  hope  of  the  termination  of  future  torments." 

Passing  into  the  fifth  century,  we  first  come  to  Theodore, 
Bishop  of  Mopsuestia,  in  Cilicia,  A.D.  392-428.  Neander 
says  of  him  and  his  Universalism : 

"  The  doctrine  of  universal  restoration  was  closely  con- 
nected with  the  fundamental  views  of  Theodore  of  Mop- 
suestia concerning  the  two  great  periods  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  rational  creation,  and  concerning  the  final  end 
of  the  redemption,  whereby  the  immutability  of  a  divine 
life  should  take  the  i)lace  of  that  mutability  an\.l  exposure 
to  temptation  which  had  before  prevailed  in  the  entire 
rational  creation.  Moral  evil  appeared  here,  in  fact,  as  a 
universally  necessary  point  of  transition  for  the  develop- 
ment of  freedom.  Diodorus  of  Tarsus  had  already  un- 
folded this  doctrine  in  his  work,  which  has  not  come  down 
to  us,  on  the  incarnation  of  the  I^eity,  and  Theotlore  exhib- 
ited it  in  his  Commentary  on  the  Gospels.  In  these  writ- 
ings they  adduced  many  other  special  reasons  against  the 
eternity  of  punishment.  .  .  .  '  God  would  not  revive  the 
wicked  at  the  resurrection,  if  they  must  needs  suffer  only 
punishment  without  reformation.'  "  - 

Theodore,  in  common  with  the  Antiochian  School, 
adopted  the  i)rinciples  of  historical  and  grammatical  inter- 
pretation of  the  Scriptures,  and  published  a  work  against 
the  allegorical  expositions  of  Origen  ;  nor  did  he  hold  to 
Origen's  doctrine  of  j)reexistence.  He  was,  says  Dorner, 
"  the  crown  and  climax  of  the  School  of  Antioch.      The 

1  "  History  <>f  tlic  Scriptural  Doctrine  of  Rctril)Ution,"  pp.  303,  30S. 
-  "  History  of  riiristiaii  Religion  and  C'luircli,"  \<)i.  ii.,  jj.  679. 


2  86  THE    UNIVEKSALISTS.  fCHAP,  I. 

compass  of  his  learning,  his  acuteness,  and,  as  we  must 
suppose,  also,  the  force  of  his  personal  character,  conjoined 
with  his  labors  through  many  years  as  a  teacher  both  of 
churches  and  of  young  and  talented  disciples  and  as  a  pro- 
lific writer,  gained  for  him  the  title  of  Magister  Orientis."  ^ 

The  following  extracts  from  his  writings  are  given  by 
Dr.  Beecher : 

"  It  pleased  God  to  divide  his  creatures  into  two  states. 
One  is  the  present,  in  which  he  has  made  all  things  muta- 
ble. The  other  is  to  occur  when  he  shall  renew  all  things 
and  render  them  immutable.  Of  this  final  state  he  has 
showed  us  the  beginning,  in  the  dispensation  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  whom  in  his  human  nature  he  raised  from 
the  dead  and  rendered  immortal  in  body  and  immutable 
in  mind,  hy  which  he  demonstrated  that  the  same  result 
shall  be  effected  in  all  his  creatures.  .  .  .  God  knew  that 
men  would  sin  in  all  ways,  but  permitted  this  result  to 
come  to  pass,  knowing  that  it  would  ultimately  be  for 
their  advantage.  For  since  God  created  man  when  he 
did  not  exist,  and  made  him  ruler  of  so  extended  a  sys- 
tem, and  offered  so  great  blessings  for  his  enjoyment,  it 
was  impossible  that  he  should  not  have  prevented  the  ex- 
istence of  sin  if  he  had  not  known  that  it  would  be  ulti- 
mately for  his  advantage.  ...  It  was  not  possible  that 
in  any  other  way  we  should  have  a  full  knowledge  of  the 
nature  and  consequences  of  sin  and  the  evils  of  our  sinful 
passions  and  know  our  weakness  disclosed  in  these  experi- 
ences, so  as  to  show  by  contrast  the  greatness  of  the  im- 
mutability to  be  given  us,  unless  it  had  been  so  ordained 
by  God  from  the  beginning,  that  by  experiment  and  com- 
parison we  might  know  the  magnitude  of  those  infinite 
benefits  that  are  to  be  conferred  on  us.      On  this  account, 

1  "  Hii  tlie  Person  of  Christ,"  vol.  i.,  div.  ii.,  p.  50.      Wlicre,  also  (pp.  t,t^— 
50),  SCO  a  full  ttiatcmcnt  of  Theodore's  doctrine. 


THEODORE    OE  AIOPSL'ESEEL  287 

knowing  that  it  would,  on  the  whole,  be  for  our  advantage, 
he  permitted  sin  to  enter.  .  .  .  It  is  the  prerogative  of  a 
rational  creature  to  distinguish  betw^een  good  and  evil 
things.  If,  therefore,  there  were  no  opposite  qualities,  it 
would  not  be  possible  for  him  to  discern  the  differences. 
Therefore,  at  the  outset,  he  introduced  these  great  con- 
trarieties into  his  creation.  .  .  .  God  did  not  introduce 
death  among  men  unwillingly,  and  contrary  to  his  judg- 
ment, nor  did  he  permit  the  entrance  of  sin  for  no  benefi- 
cial end.  He  was  not  unable  to  prevent  it  if  he  desired, 
but  he  permitted  it  because  he  knew  that  it  would  be 
beneficial  to  us,  or  rather  to  all  intelligent  beings,  that 
there  should  be  first  a  dispensation  including  evils,  and 
that  then  they  should  be  removed  and  universal  good 
take  their  place.  ...  In  the  latter  he  will  bring  all  to 
immortality  and  immutability."  ^ 

Theodore  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  founder  of  the 
Nestorian  Church,  which  is  said  to  have  equaled  in  mem- 
bership at  one  period  in  its  history  the  combined  adher- 
ents of  both  the  Greek  and  Latin  communions,  and  to 
have  had  no  ri\al  in  missionary  zeal.  For  this  church 
Theodore  prepared  the  sacramental  liturgy,  in  which  the 
priest  sets  forth  "  the  Son  of  Man,  an  acceptable  victim 
offered  to  God  the  Lord  for  all  creatures  in  the  universe." 
In  his  "  Confession  of  Faith  "  he  tluis  speaks  of  Christ's 
relation  to  the  .salvation  of  all:  "  He  is  called  the  second 
Adam  by  the  blessed  Paul ;  constituted  an  Adam  of  the 
same  nature,  and  showing  to  us  the  future  state  and  exhib- 
iting so  much  difference  from  the  first  Adam  as  will  exist 
between  him  who  bestows  the  ineffable  gifts  of  the  future 
state  and  him  who  began  the  present  mournful  state  of 
things.  In  like  manner,  he  is  called  the  second  man,  as 
disclosing  the  second  state,  because  Adam  began  the  first, 

1  "  IIist«>iy  of  the-  Scriptural  Doctrine  of  Rctril)iUion,"  jip.  222-224. 


288  THE    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  i. 

a  state  mortal  and  possibly  full  of  many  pains,  in  which 
he  showed  a  typical  similitude  to  him.  But  Christ  the 
Lord  began  the  second  state.  He  in  the  future,  revealed 
from  heaven,  will  restore  us  all  into  communion  with  him- 
self. For  the  Apostle  says,  '  The  first  man  was  of  the  earth, 
earthy;  the  second  man  is  the  Lord  from  heaven,'  that  is, 
who  is  to  appear  hereafter  thence,  that  he  may  restore  all 
to  the  likeness  of  himself."  ^ 

Johannes  Cassianius,  belonging  to  this  period,  declared, 
according  to  Ueberweg,-  that  he  "  could  not  admit  that 
God  would  save  only  a  portion  of  the  race  and  that  Christ 
died  only  for  the  elect."  Hagenbach  quotes  him^  as  say- 
ing that  the  doctrine  that  God  "  would  save  only  a  few  is 
a  great  sacrilege  or  blasphemy."  Neander  says^  that  his 
\'ie\vs  on  "  grace  "  and  "  justification  "  took  their  direction 
and  coloring  from  his  views  of  divine  love,  "  which  ex- 
tends to  all  men,  which  wills  the  salvation  of  all,  and  refers 
everything  to  this ;  even  subordinating  the  punishment  of 
the  wicked  to  this  simple  end;"  and  he  represents  him  as 
saying  that  we  ought  to  thank  God  "  that,  by  his  secret 
influences,  we  are  punished  on  account  of  our  sins;  that 
we  are  sometimes  drawn  to  salvation  even  against  our 
wills;  that  finally,  he  draws  our  free  will  itself,  prone  by 
its  own  inclination  to  what  is  vicious  and  wrong,  into  the 
path  of  virtue." 

Theodoret,  Bishop  of  Cyrus,  in  Syria,  A.D.  423-457,  was 
also  of  the  Antiochian  School,  Theodorus  being  his  chief 
instructor.  He  also  refers  to  his  obligations  to  Diodorus. 
"  As  a  shepherd  of  souls  he  was  unceasing  in  his  efforts 
to  win  heathen,  heretics,  and  Jews  to  the  true  faith.      His 


1  "  History  of  the  Scriptural  Doctrine  of  Retril)ulion,"  pp.  225,  227. 

'^  "  History  of  I'hilosojihy,"  vol.  i.,  p.  345. 

^  "  History  of  Doctrines,"  vol.  i.,  p.  307. 

*  "  History  of  Christian  Religion  and  Cliurch,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  628. 


'niEODORET.  289 

diocese,  when  he  assumed  its  government,  was  a  very  hot- 
bed of  heresy.  Nevertheless  in  the  famous  letter  to  Leo 
he  could  boast  that  not  a  tare  was  left  to  spoil  the  crop."  ^ 
Called  before  a  council,  A.I).  450,  where  he  was  bidden 
to  anathematize  Nestorius,  he  testified:  "I  was  brought 
up  by  the  orthodox,  I  was  taught  by  the  orthodox,  I  have 
preached  orthodoxy  ;"  -  a  declaration  which  shows  that  his 
Uni\-ersal!sm — which  is  unquestioned — as  well  as  that  of 
his  teachers,  was  no  bar  to  his  and  their  orthodoxy. 

On  Adam's  being  forbidden  to  take  of  the  tree  of  life, 
Theodoret  says  it  was  "  not  because  he  grudged  men  im- 
mortal '  life,  but  to  check  the  course  of  sin.  So  death  is  a 
means  of  cure,  not  a  punishment."  In  comment  on  i  Co- 
rinthians x\\  27,  28,  on  the  words  "  that  God  may  be  all 
in  all  "  :  "  lie  is  everywhere  now  in  accordance  with  his 
essence,  for  his  nature  is  uncircumscribed ;  as  says  the 
divine  Apostle,  '  in  him  we  li\e  and  move  and  have  our 
being.'  But  as  regards  his  good  pleasure,  he  is  not  in  all, 
for  '  the  Lord  taketh  pleasure  in  them  that  fear  him,  in 
those  that  hope  in  his  mercy.'  But  in  these  he  is  not 
wholly.  '  For  no  one  is  pure  of  uncleanness,  and  in  thy 
sight  shall  no  man  living  be  justified,  and  if  thou,  Lord, 
shouldst  mark  iniquities,  O  Lord,  who  shall  stand  ? '  There- 
fore the  Lord  taketh  pleasure  wherein  they  do  right,  and 
taketh  not  pleasure  wherein  they  err.  But  in  the  life  to 
come,  where  corruption  ceases  and  immortality  is  given, 
passions  have  no  place;  and  after  these  have  been  quite 
driven  out  no  kind  of  sin  is  committed  for  the  future. 
Thus  hereafter  God  shall  be  all  in  all,  when  all  have  been 
released  from  sin  and  turned  to  him  and  are  incapable  of 
any  inclination  to  the  worse."  ^ 

Rev.  Dr.  O.  Cone,  president  of  Buchtel  College,  makes 

1  "  Niccnc  and  I'ost-Nicenc  Fathers,"  second  series,  vol.  iii.,  p.  4. 

2  Ibid. ,]).!!.  i  Ibid. ,  p.    1 1. 


290  THE    UNIVEKSALJSTS.  [Chap.  i. 

the  following  quotations  from  various  writings  of  Theod- 
oret.      From  his  "Tenth  Oration  on  Providence,"  this: 

"  Wherefore  he  [Christ]  says  elsewhere,  '  Now  is  the 
judgment  of  this  world,  now  shall  the  Prince  of  this  world 
be  cast  out.'  For  now  that  judgment  has  been  established, 
he  shall  be  condemned  and  ejected  from  his  sovereignty, 
as  one  who  has  unjustly  withstood  me.  Then,  teaching 
that  he  would  free  from  the  power  of  death  not  only  his 
own  body,  but,  at  the  same  time,  the  entire  nature  of  t lie 
human  race,  he  presently  adds,  '  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up 
from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  unto  mc,'  for  I  vyill  not 
suffer  what  I  have  undertaken  to  raise  the  body  only,  but 
I  will  fully  accomplish  the  resurrection  to  all  nwn.  For  it 
was  for  this  that  I  came,  and  assumed  the  form  of  a  ser- 
vant, and  as  a  lamb  before  its  shearer  I  opened  not  my 
mouth.  The  blessed  Paul  also  speaks  to  the  same  effect, 
writing  to  the  Colossians,  and  through  them  to  all  men  : 
'  And  you,  being  dead  in  your  sins  and  the  uncircumci- 
sion  of  your  flesh,  hath  he  quickened  together  with  him- 
self, having  forgiven  you  all  trespasses,'  etc.  From  this 
we  learn  that  he  has  paid  the  debt  for  us,  and  blotted 
out  the  handwriting  tliat  was  against  us;  .  .  .  and  ]ia\ing 
done  these  things,  he  quickened  together  tvitJi  himself  the 
entire  nature  of  nwn.  And  there  are  myriads  of  other  tes- 
timonies in  the  Holy  Scriptures  teaching  these  things,  but 
the  work  of  collecting  them  all,  and  giving  to  each  its  ap- 
propriate interpretation,  would  be  immense." 

From  iiis  commentary  on  Ephesians  i.  10,  this:  "For 
through  the  dispensation  or  incarnation  of  Christ  the  nature 
of  men  arises  and  puts  on  incorruption.  .  .  .  And  the  visi- 
ble creation  shall  be  liberated  from  corruption  and  shall 
attain  incorruption,  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  invisible 
worlds  shall  live  in  perpetual  joy,  for  grief  and  sadness 
and  groaning  shall  be  done  away." 


BAR   SUDAILI.  29 1 

Again,  in  his  commentary  on  Hebrews  ii.  9,  "That  he, 
by  the  grace  of  God,  should  taste  death  for  every  man," 
he  quotes  Romans  viii.  21,  and  says  that  the  angels  shall 
be  filled  with  joy  at  the  success  of  the  work  of  Christ. 
"  For  if  they  rejoice  on  account  of  one  sinner,  much  more 
shall  they  be  filled  with  joy  seeing  the  salvation  of  so  many 
myriads.  For  all,  therefore,  he  [Christ]  endured  his  sav- 
ing passion."  1 

Neander  mentions,  as  belonging  to  this  period,  another 
Universalist :  "  A  cloister  at  Edessa,  in  Mesopotamia,  had 
for  its  head,  in  the  last  times  of  the  fifth  century,  an  abbot 
by  the  name  of  Bar  Sudaili.  .  .  .  He  maintained  that  as 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost  are  one  divine  essence,  and 
as  the  humanity  formed  one  nature  with  the  Godhead  in 
Christ,  and  his  body  became  of  like  essence  to  the  divinity 
(was  deified),  S(j  through  him  all  fallen  beings  should  also 
be  exalted  to  unity  with  God  ;  so  that  God,  as  Paul  ex- 
presses it,  should  be  all  in  all.  ...  As  a  transition-point 
to  that  universal  restoration,  he  supposed  a  millennial  king- 
dom of  exalted  happiness  on  earth  at  the  close  of  the 
earthly  course  of  the  world;  .  .  .  that  the  Sabbath  of 
that  millennial  j;criod  of  rest,  the  Sunday,  answered  to 
the  commencement  of  a  new,  higher,  eternal  order  of  the 
world,  after  the  universal  restoration." - 

In  giving  an  account  of  the  steps  and  motives  leading 
to  the  condemnation  of  Origen  by  the  Emperor  Justinian, 
and,  out  of  revenge  therefor,  the  success  of  the  Origenists 
in  securing  the  condemnation  of  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia, 
Neander  makes  mention  of  a  work  by  Facundus,  l^ishop  of 
Hermiana,  against  the  movement  in  opposition  to  Origen. 
In  it  he  refers  to  a  book  written  by  Domitian  about  the 


1   "  Universalist  (^)uar«crly,"  N.  S.,  vol.  iii.  (186(1),  pp.  24S  ff. 

S  "  History  of  Christian  Religion  and  Cliurcli,''  vol.  ii..  pp.  556,  537. 


292  I'llI--    CXIVERSAIJSTS.  [CuAi-.  i. 

year  546.  Dr.  Ballou  makes  the  following  citation  from 
FacLindus : 

"  Domitian,  formerly  Bishop  of  Ancyra  in  Galatia,  writ- 
ing a  book  to  Pope  Vigilius,  complained  of  those  who  con- 
tradicted the  doctrine  of  Origen,  that  human  souls  existed 
before  the  body  in  a  certain  happy  state,  and  that  all  who 
are  consigned  to  everlasting  torments  shall  be  restored, 
together  with  the  devil  and  his  angels,  to  their  primeval 
blessedness.  Domitian  also  asserts  that  '  they  have  even 
anathematized  the  most  holy  and  renowned  doctors,  on 
account  of  those  things  which  were  agitated  in  favor  of 
preexistence  and  universal  restoration.  This  they  have 
done  under  pretense  of  condemning  Origen;  but  in  real- 
ity condemning  all  the  saints  who  were  before  him,  and 
who  have  been  after  him.'  "  ^ 

It  has  been  commonly  asserted  and  very  generally  be- 
lieved that  Origen's  Universalism  was  pronounced  hereti- 
cal and  condemned  by  the  Fifth  General  Council,  A.D.  553. 
It  is  now  conceded  by  the  best  authorities  that  this  coun- 
cil has  been  confounded  wdth  the  local  synod  which  Men- 
nas  convened  by  order  of  Justinian,  at  Constantinople, 
A.D.  541.  Gieseler  says  that  at  the  council,  A.D.  553,  "  of 
the  Origenists  no  notice  was  taken,"  and  in  a  footnote 
adds:  "Though  as  early  as  'Cyril  Scythopolit,'  in  'Vita 
Sabae  '  (c.  90)  and  '  Evagrius  '  (\ol.  iv.,  p.  37),  the  Fifth 
Council  was  supposed  to  have  condemned  Origen,  as  was 
afterward  generally  believed.  The  mistake  arose  from 
confounding  this  council  with  that  under  Mennas.  For 
proof  of  the  mistake,  see  Walch's  '  Ketzerhistorie,'  Th. 
viii.,  S.  280  flf."  -  Neander  ("  Mistory  of  the  Christian  Relig- 
ion and  Church,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  538)  says  that  the  condem- 
nation of  Origen  was  by  the  "  Home  Synod,"  convened 

1  "  Ancient  History  of  Universalism,"  p.  265. 

2  "  Text-book  of  Ecclesiastical  History,"  vol.  i.,  p.  326. 


MAXIMUS    THE    CONFESSOR.  293 

by  Mennas.  And  Dr.  SchafT  ("  History  of  the  Christian 
Cluirch,"  \'ol.  ii.,  p.  612)  says  that  "  Hefele  conchisively 
proves  the  anathematisms  against  Origen  were  passed  by 
a  local  synod  of  Constantinojjile,  under  Mennas." 

It  is  also  in  dispute  whether  the  Council  of  A.D.  553  was 
a  General  Council.  The  Pope  of  Rome  refused  to  recog- 
nize it  from  the  first,  and  was  not  present  in  person  nor 
by  legate.  It  was  composed  of  Eastern  prelates,  governed 
by  an  Eastern  patriarch,  and  followed  the  dictation  of  Jus- 
tinian, an  Eastern  I^mperor,  who  had  an  itching  for  theo- 
logical leadership,  and  a  stubborn  pride  of  opinion  which 
never  allowed  him  to  listen  to  reason  wdien  he  had  once 
committed  himself  to  any  measure. 

It  is  very  certain  that  no  ecumenical  council  has  ever 
put  the  doctrine  of  endless  punishment,  annihilation,  or 
Universalism  into  a  creed.  And  it  is  as  obvious  to  those 
who  familiarize  themselves  with  the  motives  for  calling, 
the  mode  of  conducting,  and  the  shameful  deceptions  and 
wranglings  which  characterized  the  synods  and  coimcils 
held  in  the  fourth,  fifth,  and  sixth  centuries,  that  what 
they  did  is  of  very  little  consequence  in  deciding  the  truth 
of  any  doctrine ;  although  such  was  the  malignity  attend- 
ing the  enforcement  of  their  doings  that  many  a  good 
cause  and  a  fair  name  greatly  suflFered  therefrom.  It  was 
the  beginning  and  rapid  progress  to  that  peri<id  so  well 
and  so  truh"  known  as  the  "  Dark  Ages."  Until  the  Ref- 
orni.uion  dawned  the  traces  of  Universalism  are  few.  But 
among  tin;  few  whose  writings  the  Church  of  RfMiic  has 
permitted  to  remain,  or  rather  which,  in  spite;  of  their 
efforts  to  destroy,  are  providentially  preserved,  are  testi- 
monies to  its  being  held  and  proclaimiMl  by  men  eminent 
for  piety  and  learning. 

Maxinins  the  Confessor,  A.T).  580-663,  whose  learning, 
ability,  and  "  /lal  in  entleavoring  to  promote  a  \ital,  prac- 


294  '^^^^    UNI  VERSA  LISTS.  [Chap.  i. 

tical  Christianity,  flowing  out  of  the  disposition  of  the 
heart,"  are  attested  by  Mosheim,  Mihier,  Neander,  and 
Ritter,  was,  according"  to  Ueberweg  and  Ritter,  a  Uni- 
versaUst.  Says  the  former:  "  Maximus  taught  that  God 
had  revealed  himself  through  nature  and  by  his  Word. 
The  incarnation  of  God  in  Christ  was  the  culmination  of 
revelation,  and  would  therefore  have  taken  place  even  if 
man  had  not  fallen.  The  universe  will  end  in  the  union 
of  all  things  with  God."  Ritter  says:  "The  doctrine  of 
Maximus,  concerning  the  union  of  all  things  with  God, 
leads  him  by  consequence  to  the  doctrine  also  of  the  res- 
toration of  all  fallen  souls.  He  found  this  in  Gregory  of 
Nyssa,  and  he  could  not  do  otherwise  than  favor  it,  since 
it  stands  in  closest  agreement  with  his  own  doctrine,  that 
all  things  will  be  united  with  God  through  his  Son.  The 
Word  of  God  is  to  become  all  in  all,  and  to  save  all ;  at 
the  end  of  the  world  there  shall  be  a  uniA-ersal  renewal  of 
the  human  race.  .  .  .  The  soul  ever  seeks  rest ;  and  as  it 
can  obtain  this  nowhere  but  in  God,  it  cannot  cease  to 
strive  till  it  has  found  him.  Then  shall  the  soul  take  its 
body  again,  recover  all  its  virtues,  and  all  its  fallen  powers 
restored  to  perfect  soundness,  and  have  no  more  remem- 
brance of  its  former  evil."  ^ 

We  find  no  distinguished  name  in  the  eighth  century,  but 
the  presence  of  Universalism  is  indicated  in  the  instructions 
given  by  Pope  Gregory  II.  to  certain  missionaries  sent  to 
the  Germans,  that  they  shall  so  teach  the  people  that  they 
shall  not  fall  into  the  error  that  all  are  to  be  saved  ;  also 
in  the  declaration  of  Ambrosius,  an  Italian  abbot,  that  some 
teach  that  sinners  "  ought  not  to  be  punished  without  end  ; 

1  Ueberweg's  "History  of  Philosophy,"  vol.  i.,  p.  352.  Rittcr's  "  His- 
tory of  Christian  Philosophy,"  vol.  ii.,  pp.  550,  551.  See  also  Dr.  Schaff's 
"  History  of  the  Christian  Church,"  vol.  iv.,  p.  625. 


JOHN  SCO! US  ERIGENA.  295 

that  God  is  just  and  will  not  punish  with  eternal  torment" 
an  act  of  a  finite  being. 

In  the  ninth  century  there  are  several  kindred  testi- 
monies, and  the  distinct  avowal  of  Universalism  by  John 
Scot  us  Erigena  (a.D.  810-877),  unquestionably  the  great- 
est scholar  and  the  most  independent  thinker  of  his  times. 
Having  been  in  early  life  a  student  in  many  lands,  he  came, 
in  the  maturit}'  of  his  powers,  to  France,  where  he  was 
honored  with  a  home  in  the  palace  of  Charles  the  Bald, 
and  was  appointed  chief  or  director  of  the  School  of  the 
Palace,  an  institution  that  was  "  the  pride  of  the  royal 
court  and  the  chosen  seat  of  French  learning  in  the  ninth 
century."  Associated  here  with  scholars  and  men  of  genius 
called  together  from  all  parts  of  Europe,  he  devoted  his 
life  to  the  development  of  themes  of  the  loftiest  nature  and 
of  the  highest  interest  to  humanity.  But  he  was  greatly 
in  advance  of  his  age,  a  period  in  which  the  Latin  Church, 
then  dominant,  was  not  encouraging  thought  among  the 
masses,  but  was,  in  matters  of  faith,  compelling  obedience 
to  its  authority. 

Ilis  Universalism  is  stated  by  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  H.  Bal- 
lon, 2d,  in  thus  describing  his  theory  of  man  and  his  des- 
tiny :  "In  his  original  condition,  he  was  a  pure  spirit, 
with  an  immortal  body,  composed  not  of  matter,  but  of  a 
celestial  element ;  and  it  was  not  till  he  sinned  that  his 
soul  was  obliged  to  form  for  itself  an  earthly  body.  He 
still  retains  the  cele.stial  body  within  the  present  material 
one  ;  he  retains  his  moral  freedom,  also,  and  is  still  the 
summary  of  all  things.  But  his  fall  interrupted  the  com- 
munication of  the  world  with  God,  ami  spread  disorder 
througli  tlie  whole,  so  that  he  could  no  longer  fulfill  his 
function  as  the  reconciling  mediimi.  Jesus  Christ  took 
his  place,  and   repaired  what  man  had  broken.      He  will 


296  THE    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  i. 

accomplish  the  original  design,  bringing  all  humanity  into 
its  harmonious  relation  to  God ;  and,  as  all  creation  is 
contained  in  humanity,  the  whole  will  thus  be  restored 
together.  This  is  the  last  grand  act  in  the  divine  drama 
— the  return  of  all  things  to  God."  Adopting  the  axiom  of 
Origen  ("  De  Principiis  "),  he  says  that  "  the  end  must  be 
as  the  beginning;  for  the  conclusion  is  determined  before- 
hand by  the  agencies  in  which  the  commencement  arose ; 
and,  moreover,  we  actually  see,  that,  in  all  nature,  every- 
thing tends  back  to  its  origin.  The  first  step  in  the  return 
of  humanity  to  God  is  the  death  of  the  body,  by  which 
man  is  loosed  from  the  degrading  bonds  of  matter ;  the 
second  is  the  resurrection ;  which  will  be  followed  by  the 
transfiguration  of  the  body  into  a  spiritual  body  and  the 
restoration  of  the  whole  being  to  the  state  of  those  primary 
ideas  which  existed  in  the  Son  as  the  original  type.  The 
process  will  be  completed  when  man,  containing  all  things 
in  himself,  will  live  in  perfect  union  with  God.  Then  God 
alone  will  appear.  His  creatures  will  not  be  absorbed  in 
him,  so  as  to  lose  their  identity  ;  they  will  be  transfigured 
with  his  likeness.  As  the  air  still  exists  when  the  light 
of  the  sun  thoroughly  illuminates  it;  as  the  iron  has  not 
ceased  to  be  when,  all  red  in  the  flame,  it  seems  changed 
into  fire;  so  our  souls  will  subsist,  more  beautiful,  united 
with  God,  penetrated  and  clothed  with  his  glory.  Evil, 
with  its  attendant,  misery,  will  be  abolished  from  the  uni- 
verse ;  for  it  has  no  substantial  existence,  and  the  good- 
ness of  God,  which  alone  is  eternal  and  infinite,  must 
overcome."  ^ 

From   this  time   until   near  the  close   of  the  thirteenth 
century,  as  Dr.  Schafi"  has  shown,"-  the  ])riests  and  laity  of 

1  "  Universalist  Quarterly,"  vol.  vii.  (i.Sqo),  ]i]i.  qc),  100.      .Sec  also  Dr. 
Schaff's  "  History  of  the  C'hristian  ( 'liiirdi,"  \(il.  iv.,  p.  542. 

2  "  History  of  tlie  Christian  CJiiirc  li."  \i>l.  iv. 


AI.MARIC   AND   ALBERT.  297 

the  Latin  Church  were  ignorant  and  scandalously  immoral. 
All  voices  against  their  tenets  were  hushed  by  force,  and 
the  books  in  which  the  so-called  heresies  were  declared 
were  burned.  Among  those  who  thus  suffered  were  Ray- 
nold,  abbot  of  the  monastery  of  St.  Martin,  at  Nevers, 
France,  who  was  accused  of  teaching  among  other  here- 
sies "  that  all  men  will  eventually  be  saved,  as  Origen  had 
taught  "  ;  and  Almaric  or  Amalric  of  Bena,  a  teacher  of 
theology  and  philosophy  in  the  University  of  Paris,  who 
taught  that  "  all  creatures,  in  the  end,  would  return  to 
God."  For  this  and  other  heresies  he  was  summoned  to 
Rome,  A.D.  1204,  and  there  condemned  by  the  pope.  Soon 
after  his  return  to  Paris  he  died  of  grief.  After  his  death 
it  was  found  that  he  had  established  a  sect,  which,  under 
the  lead  of  David  of  Dinanto,  had  become  thoroughly 
pantheistic.  In  A.D.  T2I0  such  of  the  sect  as  would  not 
recant  were  burned  at  the  stake ;  the  name  of  Almaric 
was  anathematized  and  his  bones  dug  up  and  thrown  on 
a  dunghill.' 

iVlbcrt — commonly  called  Albcrtus  Magnus — Bishop  of 
Regensburg,  A.D.  1260,  of  whom  Ncander  .says,  "  I  iis  great 
mind  grasped  the  whole  compass  of  human  knv)\vledge  as 
it  existed  in  his  time,"  believed  in  the  redemption  of  all. 
He  says:  "This  [the  restoration  of  allj  will  occur  when 
all  lo\-e,  all  desires,  every  effort,  mind  and  thought,  every- 
thing that  has  transpired,  which  transpires  now,  and  which 
is  yet  to  occur,  everything  that  is  said  and  hoped,  shall 
belong  to  God  ;  and  the  unity  which  exists  between  the 
l^\ather  and  the  S(M1  shall  I)e  maiu'fested  in  all  hearts." - 

In  the  Fast,  Solomon,  Metropolitan  Bishop  of  r)assorah, 
on  the   luiphrates,   was  a  writer  of  considerable  renown 

I  Ncandcr's  "  History  of  Clnistian  Rtli^Ion  .and  Cliurcli,"  vol.  iv., 
pp.  445  (T. 

-  "  Univorsalisni  :  Tlint  is.  Co,]  All  in  All."  StuttL^.irt,  iSri:;.  (Jnotcd  in 
"  I'nivcTsalisl  (,)ii:iitcrly,"'  N.  S..  \cil.  i.  (1S64).  ]>.  2Z^2. 


298  rilE    UNI  VERSA  LISTS.  [Chap.  i. 

among  the  Nestorians.  "  Some  of  his  works,  in  the  Syriac 
language,  yet  remain,  though  only  in  manuscript.  In  one 
of  them  he  discusses  the  question  '  Whether  the  demons 
and  sinners  who  are  now  in  hell  shall  at  length  obtain 
mercy,  after  having  suffered  their  appointed  punishment 
and  been  purified?'  In  answer  he  quotes  the  affirmative 
opinion  of  Theodorus  of  Mopsuestia  and  of  Diodorus  of 
Tarsus,  and  subscribes  to  it  himself.  "^ 

Dr.  Ballon  quotes  Dupin's  "  Ecclesiastical  History  "  to 
the  effect  that  the  Lollards  had  for  their  leader  Walter 
Lollard,  who  began  to  disperse  his  errors  about  the  year 
13 15,  and  that  they  spread  through  Germany,  and  that 
one  of  their  errors  was  the  belief  "  that  the  damned  in 
hell  and  the  evil  angels  should  one  day  be  saved."-'  And 
the  same  authority  is  quoted  for  a  council  convened  by 
Langham,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  A.D.  1368,  in  which 
judgment  was  given  against  thirty  propositions  that  were 
taught  in  his  province ;  one  of  which  was  that  "  all  the 
damned,  even  the  demons,  may  be  restored  and  become 
happy." 

As  early  as  the  ele\-enth  century  organizations  were 
created  within  the  church  for  the  purpose  of  elevating  the 
standard  of  .spiritual  life.  The  first  of  these  arose  in  the 
Netherlands,  and  was  composed  of  women  who  called 
themselves  Beguines.  Early  in  the  tliirteenth  century 
they  were  joined  by  the  male  communities  of  the  Beg- 
hards,  and  a  hundred  years  later  the  Lollards  came  into 
notice  and  "  became  uncommonly  numerous.  These //v/jyt 
makers  and  chanters — for  such  is  certainly  the  most  cor- 
rect interpretation  of  the  words  Beghards  and  Lollard.^ — 
devoted  their  attention  wholly  to  practical  objects.  Eor 
the  most  part  they  lived  together  in  separate  houses  of 

1    I!:ilIon's  ".\iicient  History  of  Universalisni,"'  p.  300. 

-  y/'/</. ,  p.  302. 


BRETHREN  OE    THE    COMMON  LOT.  299 

their  own,  with  the  utmost  simplicity,  supported  by  the 
earnings  of  their  manual  industry  and  by  charitable  dona- 
tions, and  chiefly  occupied  with  works  of  Christian  benevo- 
lence. In  these  labors  they  not  only  manifested  blame- 
lessness  of  life,  but  did  great  good."^  Gradually  mystical 
notions  prevailed  among  them,  and  the  Beghards  became 
known  as  the  Brethren  and  Sisters  of  the  Free  Spirit. 
Some  of  them  were  pantheistic  in  their  theories,  and  some 
remained  theists.  Henry  Eckart,  a  Dominican  monk,  was 
the  learned  leader  of  mystical  pantheistic  thought,  and 
John  Ruysbroek  was  the  chief  representative  of  mysti- 
cism reared  on  the  basis  of  Christian  theism.  Under  the 
impulse  of  his  teachings,  a  new  society,  called  the  15rethren 
of  the  Common  Lot,  sprang  up ;  the  old  societies  of  the 
Beguines,  Beghards,  and  Lollards  having  degenerated  and 
fallen  to  pieces  of  themselves,  or  been  suppressed.  Ger- 
hard Groot,  born  ab(Mit  tlie  middle  of  the  fourteenth  cent- 
ury, was  active  in  forming  the  Brotherhood  of  the  Common 
Lot,  but  his  most  forceful  incitement  thereto  came  from 
his  visit  to  Ruysbroek,  whose  personal  qualities  and  teach- 
ings so  charmed  him  that  he  began  at  once  to  found  the 
new  order.  "  This  Society  of  the  Common  Lot  bore  a  cer- 
tain resemblance  to  the  j^hilosophical  and  ascetical  confed- 
erations of  Gentiles  and  Jews  in  ancient  times ;  but  was 
more  free,  open,  and  practical.  ...  Its  grand  object  was 
the  establishment,  exemplification,  and  spread  of  practical 
Christianity.  This  they  endeavored  to  accomplish,  in  the 
first  instance,  among  themseh-es,  by  the  whole  style  of 
their  association,  by  the  moral  rigor  and  simplicit}'  of  their 
manner  of  lix'ing,  by  religious  conversations,  mutual  con- 
fessions, admonitions,  lectures,  and  social  exercises  of  de- 
votion. Kor  the  promotion  of  the  same  object  outwardl\-, 
they  labored  by  transcribing  and  propagating  sacred  Script- 

l    Ullman's  "  Reformers  l)vfi)rc  tin'  Kcformalinn,"  \<>1.  ii.,  p.   12. 


300  THE    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chai>,  i, 

ure  and  proper  religious  treatises,  but  most  of  all  by  the 
instruction  of  the  common  people  in  Christianity,  and  the 
revival  and  improvement  of  the  education  of  youth.  In 
this  last  department  they  formed  an  epoch.  They  not 
merely  gave  instruction  gratuitously  and  thereby  rendered 
the  arts  of  reading  and  writing  attainable  by  all,  both  rich 
and  poor,  and  not  only  promoted  in  every  way  the  prog- 
ress of  the  more  indigent  class  of  students,  but,  what  was 
of  most  consequence,  they  imbued  education  with  quite  a 
new  life  and  a  purer  and  nobler  spirit."^ 

In  the  early  part  of  the  history  of  this  society  little 
was  said  of  the  doctrine  of  the  last  things.  Later,  John 
Wessel,  their  great  theologian,  evidently  did  not  believe 
in  Universalism  ;  but  Ruysbroek,  whose  teachings  led  to 
the  forming  of  the  society,  speaks  plainly  on  the  subject. 
"  Man,"  he  says,  "  having  proceeded  from  God,  is  destined 
to  return,  and  become  one  with  him  again.  This  oneness, 
however,  is  not  to  be  understood  as  meaning  that  we  be- 
come wholly  identified  with  him  and  lose  our  own  being 
as  creatures,  for  that  is  an  impossibility.  What  it  is  to  be 
understood  as  meaning  is,  that  we  are  conscious  of  being 
wholly  in  God,  and  at  the  same  time  also  wholly  in  our- 
selves;  that  we  are  united  with  God,  and  yet  at  the  same 
time  remain  different  from  him."^ 

Such,  als(\  was  the  Universalism  of  John  Tauler,  Ruys- 
broek's  most  celebrated  pupil:  "As  Jesus  came  from  the 
Father,  and  returns  to  the  P^ather  again,  st)  is  this  the 
destination  of  every  man."^  Or,  as  Petersen  quotes  liim 
more  fully  :  "  Christ  is  the  brightness  of  God's  glory  and 
the  express  image  of  his  ])crson  ;  for  this  essential  Word 
and  Son  of  God  is  eternally  begotten  of  the  Father,  and 
remains  none  the  less  eternally  in  the  fatherly  "iieart,  and 

1    Ulliii.an's  "  Rcfornu'is  l)c'fnic  the  Rfforniiation,"  \(il.  ii.,  ]i]i.  70  IT. 
'■'   //'/(/.,  i>.  40.  :■   //)/,/.,  p.  20S. 


JOHN   OF   GOCll.  301 

through  him  has  tlic  Father  iiKule  excrytliiiig  that  is  made, 
as  St.  John  has  shown.  Now  in  like  manner  as  all  things 
had  their  beginning  and  origin  in  the  Deity,  through  the 
birth  of  tlie  lUernal  Word  from  the  Father,  so  also  do  all 
creatures  exist  in  their  being  through  the  same  birth  (f 
the  Son,  and  therefore  shall  they  all  come  again  to  their 
original,  that  is,  God  the  Father,  through  the  same,  his 
Eternal  Son."^ 

John  of  Goch,  born  about  1400,  in  the  Duch}-  of  Cleves, 
was  educated,  as  Dr.  Ullman  confidently  assumes,  "  in  one 
of  the  institutions  of  the  Brethren  of  the  Common  Lot  "  ; 
and  is  described  by  him  as  "  a  man  of  great  sensibility, 
with  an  intellect  equally  profouml  and  acute,  of  glowing 
piety,  and  a  very  subtle  power  of  argumentation."  Me 
was  a  biblical  theologian,  "  imbued  with  tlie  spirit  of  the 
Apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  and  deej)ly  and  \itally  smitten 
with  a  relish  for  his  doctrine  of  justification  through  faith, 
working"  by  love." 

*'  The  whole  substance  of  his  theology,"  says  Dr.  Ullman, 
"  may  be  condensed  into  the  words  Of  God,  tJirougli  God, 
to  God.  God  is  the  fountain  alike  of  all  being  and  of  all 
well-being.  Deriving  as  he  does  his  existence  from  God, 
the  chief  end  of  man  is  fellowship  with  God  by  spontane- 
ous love.  This  end,  however,  now  that  m'ln  is  a  sinner, 
can  be  attained  only  through  God,  and  in  the  use  of  those 
means  which  his  grace  and  spirit  supply,  so  that  the  life 
of  man  here  on  earth,  no  less  than  the  higher  stage  of  its 
evolution,  and  tlie  blessedness  in  which  that  is  to  terminate, 
are  essentially  a  divine  work  and  gift.  .  .  .  The  history 
of  the  serpent,  the  woman,  and  the  man  is  the  moral  his- 
tory of  mankind,  and  what  it  t)'pically  portrays  is  repeated 
afresh  in  every  individual.      In  spite  of  sin,  however,  man 

1  Translated  by  Rev.  Dr.  T.  J.  Sawyer,  in  "  Christian  Ambassador,"  June 
IS,  1853. 


302  THE    UNIVERSAf.ISTS.  [Chap.  i. 

still  retains  the  will  in  a  state  of  freedom  from  constraint 
and  of  susceptibility  for  good.  This  includes  the  possibil- 
ity of  recovery.  For  man,  however,  once  fallen  into  sin 
and  guilt,  recovery  is  inconceivable  by  any  other  means 
than  grace.  The  mediator  of  recovering  grace  is  Christ, 
the  only  perfectly  righteous  human  being.  .  .  .  By  this 
one  person  all  who  have  fallen  into  a  state  of  enmity  are 
again  reconciled  to  God,  which  does  not  mean  that  there 
is  anything  like  hostility  on  the  part  of  God  toward  man 
requiring  to  be  removed,  but  which  means  that  on  the 
part  of  man  the  principle  of  opposition  to  God,  or  sin, 
is  extirpated,  and  the  principle  of  love  implanted  in  its 
room." ' 

He  frequently  reverts  to  this  latter  thought,  that  the 
work  of  Christ  is  not  to  reconcile  God  to  man,  but,  as  the 
Scriptures  teach,  to  reconcile  man  to  God.      Thus: 

"  In  forming  to  ourselves  a  conception  of  the  rcdctnption 
instituted  by  Christ,  we  must  not  imagine  that  there  had 
existed  any  such  eimiity  between  God  and  man  as  some- 
times exists  between  two  hostile  individuals,  for  whose  rec- 
onciliation it  is  necessary  that,  on  both  sides,  friendship 
should  be  restored.  No :  the  antithesis  is  that  between 
righteousness  and  sin.  Hence  there  is  hatred  only  on  the 
side  of  sin,  and  the  moment  sin  is  taken  away  enmity  also 
ceases.  Christ  accordingly  has  reconciled  us  to  God,  not 
as  foe  is  reconciled  to  foe.  The  method  rather  is,  that  our 
sin,  through  which  we  manifested  hostility  to  God,  being 
abolished  by  Christ's  death,  we  now  begin  to  love  him, 
whereas  he  never  withdrew  his  love  from  us,  but  loved 
us  from  the  foundation  of  the  world,  and  even  while  we 
were  his  enemies.  "- 

Everything  that  God  has  made  is,  Goch  maintains,  good. 

1  Ullman'.s  "  Reformers  before  the  Reform.ition,"  vol.  i.,  pp.  39  ff. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  77  f. 


jojix  OF  aocu.  3uj 

But  man,  who  is  God's  work,  is  both  good  and  e\il. 
Whence  comes  the  evil?  In  the  misuse  of  his  moral  free- 
dom. "  In  virtue  of  this  freedom,  it  was  possible  for  man 
to  stand  and  retain  the  goodness  of  his  nature."  He  finds 
then  tliat  there  are  two  evils  in  the  world  :  "  the  first  is  sin, 
which  (lod  did  not  create,  and  which  is  therefore  properly 
nothing  but  a  mere  privation  of  that  which  is  naturally 
g(M)d  ;  the  second  is  \\\ii  penalty  appointed  for  it  by  di\'ine 
justice.  This  second  kind  of  e\'il,  being  produced  by  God, 
is  for  that  reason  likewise  good,  for  although  it  may  be 
bad  for  the  body,  which  it  destroys,  it  is  yet  good  for  the 
soul,  which  it  heals."  The  doctrine  of  "total  depravity" 
he  repudiates.  "  Nay,  it  may  be  asserted  generally  that 
the  bad  never  exists  without  the  good,  and  can  only  exist 
in  connection  with  it ;  for  if  there  were  nothing  good  which 
couki  be  corrupted,  there  could  also  be  nothing  bad  to 
corrupt  it.  The  gocxl  which  cannot  possibly  be  corrupted 
is  the  perfect;  that,  howex-er,  which  can  be  so  greatly  cor- 
rupted as  in  every  respect  to  be  despoiled  of  good  is  no 
longer  competent  to  exist."' 

Not  to  multiply  quotations  setting  forth  his  opinions, 
we  add  but  this : 

"  In  fact,  the  thought  which  lies  at  the  basis  of  all  his 
theolog)'  ma\-  be  expressed  in  S(jme  such  ft)rmula  as  this: 
God,  who  is  love,  is  thereby  the  source  of  all  good.  Or, 
God  is  the  everlasting  and  creative  love,  and  man  the 
created,  which,  having  emanated  from  God,  must  through 
God  lelurn  to  him  again;  and  the  means  by  which  this 
return  is  elTected  is  Christ's  work  of  redem})tion  leading 
by  love  to  liberty." - 

About  141  I  there  was  discovered  in  Flanders  a  sect 
which  called   themselves  "Men  of  Understanding."     The 

1  I'Uman's  "  Reformers  before  the  Kcforniation,"  vol.  i.,  p.  64. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  52. 


304  '^'JJ^    iWIl'KRSALlSTS.  [Chap.  i. 

learning  and  ability  of  one  of  its  founders,  William  of 
Hildesheim,  a  Carmelite  monk,  is  so  far  conceded  that 
Mosheim  regards  it  as  proof  that  some  of  the  fanatical 
sentiments  attributed  to  the  sect  by  its  enemies  could  not 
have  been  taught  by  him.  They  are  supposed  to  have 
been  generally  related  to  the  earlier  Brethren  of  the  Free 
Spirit ;  and  to  have  especially  antagonized  the  Roman 
Church  on  the  power  ckiimed  by  the  latter  to  forgive  sins 
and  to  teach  that  voluntary  penances  are  necessary  to  sal- 
vation. They  also  taught  "  that  the  tjnly  resurrection  of 
the  body  which  would  ever  take  place  had  taken  place 
already  in  Christ ;  that  the  spiiit  is  not  defiled  by  bodily 
sin  ;  that  tlie  punishments  of  hell  are  not  eternal ;  and  that 
even  the  evil  angels  would  be  eventually  saved. "^ 

John  Picus,  prince  of  Mirandula  and  Concordia,  in  Italy, 
was,  according  to  Mosheim,  "  a  very  finished  scholar,  a 
great  linguist  and  philosopher,  a  great  disputant,  and  then 
a  sober  theologian,  and  at  last  a  humble  and  zealous  Chris- 
tian." He  presented  himself  at  Rome  in  i486  and  set 
forth  several  hundred  propositions,  which,  according  to 
the  custom  of  the  time,  he  engaged  to  maintain  in  public 
disputation.  One  of  these  propositions  was  that  "  infinite 
pain  is  not  due  even  to  mortal  sin;  because  sin  is  finite, 
and  therefore  merits  but  finite  punishment  "  ;  and  another 
that  "  there  is  more  reason  to  believe  that  Origen  was 
saved  than  that  he  was  damned."  He  was  not  answered, 
but  silenced  by  the  pope. 

Dr.  Ballou  makes  mention  of  Peter  d'Aranda,  Bishop 
of  Calahorra  in  Old  Castile,  Spain,  as  being  degraded  and 
condemned  to  pcrjietual  imprisonment,  A.D.  1498,  on  being 
convicted,  it  is  said,  of  Judaism.  But  as  he  is  known  to 
have  celebrated  mass  daily,  it  is  certain  that  he  was  no 

1  Mosheim's  "  Ecclesiastical  History,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  467  f.  SchufT-IIcrzog 
Encyclopedia,  vol.  ii.,  p.  1466. 


PETER  jy.lRANDA.  305 

Jew.  In  his  prayers  he  said,  "  Glory  to  the  Fatiier,"  with- 
out adding,  "  to  the  Son,"  or  "  to  the  Holy  Ghost,"  and 
was  doubtless  a  Unitarian  Christian.  "  lie  held  that  in- 
dulgences were  of  no  avail,  but  were  inxented  for  the 
profit  that  was  drawn  from  them ;  that  there  was  neither 
purgatory  nor  hell,  but  only  paradise." 

We  have  thus  traced  the  history  of  Universalist  thought, 
based  on  various  philosophies  and  interpretations  of  Script- 
ure, to  the  closing  years  of  the  Dark  Ages.  We  have 
found  it  most  prominent  in  the  brightest,  freest,  and  most 
prosperous  days  of  early  Christian  times,  and  not  wholly 
extinct  when  put  under  the  ban  in  years  of  repression  of 
thought  and  speech,  days  of  ignorance,  intolerance,  and 
gloom. 


CHAPTER    II. 

FROM    LUTHER    TO    THE    PRESENT   TIME. 

The  Protestant  Reformation,  from  which  we  date  the 
modern  history  of  Universalism,  bet^an  in  October,  15  17, 
when  Martin  Luther,  a  Roman  Catholic  monk,  preacher, 
and  professor  of  philosophy  in  the  University  of  Witten- 
berg, nailed  to  the  doors  of  the  castle  church  his  ninety- 
five  Latin  Theses  on  the  subject  of  indulgences,  and  invited 
a  public  discussion ;  although  his  decisive  act  of  breaking 
away  from  his  church  was  delayed  until  December  10, 
1520,  when  he  publicly  burned  the  pope's  bull  of  excom- 
munication. 

Two  years  later  (1522)  Luther  in  a  letter  to  Hansen 
von  Rechenberg,  on  the  c]uestion  "  Whether  God  can  or 
will  save  those  who  die  without  faith,"  states  that  "  there 
are  among  us  here,  as  there  have  been  at  times  among 
the  most  eminent  people,  as  Origen  and  his  like,  those  to 
whom  it  seems  quite  too  harsh  and  severe,  and  so  unbe- 
coming the  divine  goodness,  that  God  should  cast  off  men, 
and  thus  have  created  them  for  eternal  torment.  .  .  . 
They  go  still  further,  and  maintain  that  even  the  devils 
will  at  last  be  released  and  not  remain  eternally  damned." 
Personally  he  is  convinced  that  eternal  damnation  is  taught 
in  the  Scriptures,  "and  quite  right,"  he  says,  "  would  it 
be  to  conclude,  that,  were  it  not  a  judgment  of  God,  it 
would  be  mere  malice,  arbitrary  power,  and  injustice.   .   .   . 

306 


MARTIN  LUTJIER.  307 

For  the  eye  of  nature  must  be  entirely  plucked  out,  and 
mere  faith  substituted,  otherwise  (mic  cannot  avoid  being 
shocked  and  dangerously  ofTended  at  it ;  and  when  the 
young"  and  inexperienced  in  faitli  fall  upon. it  (as  it  com- 
monly happens  that  every  one  must  commence  at  the 
highest  point),  and  begin  to  contemplate  it  in  a  natural 
light,  they  are  very  near  receiving  a  great  and  sudden 
fall,  and  being  betrayed  into  a  secret  contradiction  of  will 
and  hatred  toward  God,  from  which  it  is  difificult  afterward 
to  recover  themseh'es.  Hence  we  should  advise  them  to 
remain  undisturbed  on  account  of  the  judgments  of  God 
till  they  are  well  grown  in  faith.  ...  So  it  is  not  diffi- 
cult to  answer  this  question  ;  but  still  it  is  dangerous.  .  .  . 
Nature  and  reason  cannot  bear  it;  it  terrifies  too  much 
for  them  :  weak  faith  also  cannot  bear  it ;  it  is  too  offensive 
for  that.  .  .  .  What  shall  we  do  tlien?  .  .  .  We  should 
put  off  this  dealing  of  God  as  the  highest  and  most  excel- 
lent till  we  ha\e  become  firm  and  strong,  or  else  what  we 
think,  write,  and  speak  on  the  subject  is  vain  and  mis- 
chiex'ous.  .  .  .  Sec  well  to  it  with  whom  this  subject  is 
discussed,  and  keep  silence  or  speak  accordingly.  Are 
they  naturally  rational,  intelligent  people?  then  avoid  this 
question.  Are  they,  on  the  contrary,  simple,  deep,  spirit- 
ual, and  exj^erienced  jjeople?  there  is  no  more  useful  sub- 
ject to  treat  upon  with  them  than  this." 

"  Now,"  he  says,  "  to  come  to  the  answer.  We  have 
very  strong"  passages  to  show  that  without  faith  God 
neither  will  nor  can  .save  any  one.  ...  It  is  just  as  im- 
possible for  God  to  save  men  without  faith  as  it  is  for 
the  Divine  Majesty  to  lie.  ...  It  would  be  quite  another 
question  whether  God  can  give  faith  to  some,  in  or  after 
death,  and  so  save  them  through  faith.  Who  doubts  that 
he  can  do  this?  l^ut  that  he  does  it  we  cannot  prove; 
althoufjh  we  read   that   he  once  raised  the  dead  and  then 


3o8  THE    UNIVEKSALISTS.  [CiiAi'.  ii. 

gave  them  faith.  Now,  in  this  matter,  he  does  what  he 
does:  he  either  gives  faith,  or  he  gives  it  not.''^ 

There  are  several  things  in  this  letter  which  may  profit- 
ably be  considered,  but  the  very  significant  one  to  us  is 
that  he  knows  that  there  were  some  in  his  day  and  country 
who  believed  in  Universalism,  and  that  they  commanded 
no  little  attention. 

Eight  years  later  we  have  Universalists  more  particu- 
larly designated.  The  Augsburg  Confession,  drawn  up  by 
Luth«r  and  Melanchthon  in  1530,  was  intended  to  express 
the  views  of  the  Reformers,  and  at  the  same  time,  if  pos- 
sible, conciliate  the  Romanists.  The  latter  had  charged 
that  Luther's  movement  was  only  the  precursor  of  other 
and  more  heretical  schisms,  and  that  already  other  sects 
were  springing  up.  In  the  Confession  I.uther  assented  to 
some  things  which  he  knew  were  not  true,  in  asserting 
the  agreement  of  the  Reformers  with  the  Romanists  in  all 
matters  of  doctrine,  while  Melanchthon  in  "  his  desire  for 
union  and  peace  deceived  himself  "  ;'-^  and  they  united  in 
condemning  all  others  who  were  opposing  Rome.  Zwingli, 
although  not  mentioned  by  name,  fell  under  their  ban; 
and  *in  the  seventeenth  article,  after  affirming  their  faith 
in  the  doctrine  of  the  eternal  torments  of  the  wicked,  they 
add  :  "  We  condemn  the  Anabaptists,  who  maintain  that 
there  shall  be  an  end  to  the  punishment  of  the  damned 
and  of  the  devils." 

These  Anabaptists  originated  in  Switzerland,  where 
they  were  persecuted  by  both  Reformers  and  Romanists. 
Thence  they  went  to  southern  and  middle  Germany,  and 
later  they  were  in  northern  Germany  and  developed  a  won- 
derful missionary  zeal.      At  Augsburg  they  had  gathered 

1  Translation  by  Thomas  J.  Sawyer,  D.D.,  "  Universalist  Quarterly," 
vol.  vii.  (1850),  pp.  356  ff. 

2  Schaff's  "  History  of  the  Christian  CInirch,"  vol.  vi.,  p.  709. 


THE  ANABAPTISTS.  309 

a  congregation  of  -eleven  hundred  members,  and  had  held 
a  general  synod  in  1527.  They  were  not  all  Unix'ersalists, 
but  two  of  their  principal  leaders,  Denk  and  Hetzer,  are 
known  to  have  been  such  and  to  have  been  influential  in 
impressing  their  views  on  many.  They  were  both  men  of 
learning,  and  unitedly  produced  and  published  a  transla- 
tion of  the  Old  Testament  prophecies,  several  years  before 
Luther's  translation  appeared.  Dorner  says  that  "  while 
Denk  maintained  a  universal  restoration,  Hetzer  rejected 
it."'  It  is  generally  claimed  that  they  were  in  agreement 
in  regard  to  destiny. 

The  Anabaptists  have  been  charged  with  responsibility 
for  serious  political  disturbances  involving  loss  of  life,  in 
what  is  known  as  the  Peasants'  War,  but  it  is  now  con- 
ceded that  the  true  rise  of  these  insurrections  ought  not 
to  be  attributed  to  religious  opinions,  from  the  fact  that 
many  Romanists,  and  a  still  larger  number  of  people  who 
had  scarcely  any  religious  principles,  were  active  in  them. 
The  people  were  groaning  under  severe  oppressions  and 
sought  to  defend  their  civil  liberties,  and  some  of  the 
Anabaptists  took  advantage  of  rather  than  originated  the 
commotions.  "  The  histor\-  of  the  Anabaptists,"  says  Dr. 
Schaff,  "  has  yet  to  be  written  from  an  impartial,  unsec- 
tarian  standpoint. "- 

As  the  Anabaptists,  however,  did  not  manifest  them- 
selves in  Switzerland  until  about  1523,  and  in  Germany 
some  two  years  later,  it  seems  evident  that  by  the  ex- 
pression "  among  us  here  "  Luther  alludes  to  some  of  the 
Reformers  themselves  as  entertaining  Universalist  views. 
Who  they  were  we  have  no  means  of  knowing.  Justus 
Jonas,  "  professor  of  church  law  and  provost  at  Wittenberg, 
and   one  of  the  m(^st  intimate  friends  and  co-workers  of 

'   "  History  of  Protestant  Tlieoloi^y,"  vol.  i.,  p.  iqi.     Kdinhuigh,  1S71. 
'^  "  Baptist  Quarterly  Review,"  iSS<),  p.  263. 


3IO  THE    UNI  VERSA  LISTS.  [Chap.  ii. 

Luther,"  his  assistant  in  the  translation  of  the  Bible,  and 
the  author  of  "  Annotations  on  the  Acts  of  the  Apos- 
tles," is  claimed  by  some  as  a  believer  in  Universalism. 
Dr.  Bengel,  in  his  "  Gnomon,"  makes  frequent  use  of  the 
"  Annotations,"  and,  commenting  on  Acts  i.  7,  says :  "  Jus- 
tus Jonas  writes :  '  It  is  enough  that  you  know  from  the 
Scriptures  that  it  is  about  to  come  to  pass  that  all  things 
shall  be  restored ;  but  when  this  is  about  to  be,  belongs 
to  God.'  "  Again,  on  "  the  restitution  of  all  things,"  Acts 
iii.  21  :  -"Justus  Jonas  says:  *  Christ  is  that  king  who  has 
now  received  heaven,  reigning  in  the  meantime  through 
the  gospel  in  the  Spirit,  until  all  things  be  restored,  i.e., 
until  the  remainder  of  the  Jews  and  Gentiles  be  converted.' 
(Rom.  xi.)"^  But  aside  from  Luther's  own  declaration 
we  have  no  positive  knowledge  of  who  the  believers  may 
have  been,  nor  how  numerous  they  were. 

The  work  of  Luther  was  soon  known  and  warmly  wel- 
comed in  England,  and  was  antagonized  as  early  as  1521 
by  the  notorious  Henry  VIII.,  who  wrote  so  vigorously 
against  it  as  to  be  rewarded  by  the  pope  with  the  title  of 
Defender  of  the  Faith  ;  but  being  opposed  not  long  after 
by  the  pope  in  his  project  of  putting  awa}'  his  wife  in 
order  that  he  might  marry  Anne  Boleyn,  he  induced  Par- 
liament to  sunder  the  connection  between  England  and 
Rome  and  recognize  him  as  the  head  of  the  church.  Thus 
become  a  Protestant,  he  followed  illustrious  examples  and 
claimed  for  himself  a  monopoly  in  protesting  against  the 
influence  of  the  pope  in  his  kingdom.  The  doctrines  of 
Rome  he  had  no  intention  of  changing.  Heresies  were 
punished  with  death  ;  and  although  the  king  had  by  proc- 
lamation given  the  people  permission  to  read  the  Bible,  a 

>  "  ('.nonion  "  (E<linl)iiri,'li,  iSSo),  vol.  ii.,  pp-S'S,  545-  J-  K()stlin,  in 
tlic  article  "Apnk.at.istasis  "  in  tlic  SclialT  I  Ici/ol;  Imu  yilopadia,  says  that 
UcntjL'l  liinist'lf  hclieveil  in  L'nivcrsalism,  "  Imt  tlimiL^lit  it  dani^erous  to 
teacli." 


FKO  TESTA  NT  ENGLAND.  3 1 1 

translation  of  which  had  been  made  under  his  authority, 
its  use  was  ere  long  forbidden  by  a  counter-proclamation. 
On  the  death  of  Henry  a  majority  favorable  to  the  Refor- 
mation was  obtained  in  the  rei^ency  which  ruled  England 
during  the  minority  of  Edward  VI.,  at  the  head  of  which 
was  Archbishop  Cranmer,  who  soon  called  eminent  Re- 
formers from  Germany  to  aid  him  in  carrying  through  all 
that  was  involved  in  the  Reformation  there. 

Heresies,  so  called,  sprang  up  all  over  England ;  per- 
secuted Protestants — persecuted  alike  by  Reformers  and 
Romanists — flocked  there  from  all  lands  ;  and  among  them 
the  Anabaptists,  whose  name  probably  at  that  time  cov- 
ered many  differing  sects,  were  numerous  and  zealous  in 
seeking  converts  in  the  new  field.  To  stay  the  tide  a 
commission  was  established  by  the  regency  empowered  to 
search  out,  examine,  and  punish  heretics,  in  doing  which 
they  condemned  some  to  die.  As  a  further  guard,  and 
to  produce  uniformity  of  faith  throughout  the  kingdom, 
especially  among  the  clergy,  forty-two  articles  of  religion 
w^ere  sent  forth  in  1552  under  the  authority  of  the  king. 
The  forty-second  article  reads:  "They  also  deserve  to 
be  condemned  wlio  endeavor  to  restore  that  pernicious 
opinion  that  all  men  (though  never  so  ungodly)  .shall  at 
last  be  saved ;  when  for  a  certain  time,  appointed  by  the 
Divine  Justice,  they  have  endured  punishment  for  their 
sins  committed." 

Within  a  year  from  the  promulgation  of  these  articles, 
Mary,  the  daughter  of  Henry  and  Catharine,  succeeded 
Edward  as  monarch.  She  was  a  devoted  Romanist,  and 
at  once  set  henself  to  the  undoing  of  the  work  of  the  Re- 
formers, putting  many  to  dealli  and  ordering  the  destruc- 
tion of  all  Protestant  books;  but  lu^r  own  death  thwarted 
her  i)urpose  of  an  official  restoration  of  the  papal  church. 
Elizabeth,  the  daughter  of  Hc-nry  and  Anne  Roleyn,  who 


312  THE    UNIVERSALISTS.  [CliAi'.  ii. 

succeeded  Mary,  resumed  the  work  of  her  father,  making 
the  Enghsh  Reformation  a  triumph  over  Rome  and  also 
over  the  Reformations  of  Germany  and  Switzerland.  The 
Confession  of  Faith  was  reduced  to  thirty-nine  articles, 
and  in  this  form  adopted  by  a  convocation  of  the  clergy 
in  1562,  and  in  1571  was  made  by  Parliament  the  rule  of 
faith  for  all  the  clergy.  The  forty-second  article  w^as 
among  those  stricken  out.  Since  that  time  Universalism 
has  not  been  regarded  as  heretical  in  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, and  some  of  its  most  eminent  bishops  and  other 
clergy  have  ably  set  it  forth.  Rev.  Thomas  Allin  quotes 
the  Bishop  of  Manchester  as  saying:  "The  forty-second 
article  was  withdrawn  because  the  church,  knowing  that 
men  like  Origen,  Clement,  and  Gregory  of  Nyssa  were 
Universalists,  refused  to  dogmatize  on  such  questions."^ 

Dr.  Plumptre  expresses  his  opinion  that  others  than 
the  Anabaptists  were  aimed  at  by  the  forty-second  article, 
and  says :  "  It  may  be  well  to  remember  that  there  was 
another  class  of  thinkers  who  might  be  suspected  of  these 
opinions.  The  last  years  of  Erasmus  had  been  given  to 
the  publication  of  a  Latin  version  of  Origen,  for  whom 
he  professed  a  far  deeper  love  and  admiration  than  for 
Augustine,  as  '  having  opened  to  him  the  springs  and 
methods  of  theological  science.'  It  was  published  with  a 
Dedicatory  Epistle  from  Grynaeus  to  Erastus  (the  Swiss 
physician  whose  name  survives  in  Erastianism),  entreat- 
ing him  to  act  as  the  champion  and  apologist  of  Origen 
against  the  evil  tongues  that  attacked  his  fame  ;  and  by 
another  from  Beatus  Rhenanus  to  Hermann,  Archbishop 
of  Cologne.  One  of  Erasmus's  felhnv-workers  was  an 
Englishman,  Laurence  Humj^hrey  (Humfridus),  by  whom 
the  three  Dialogues  against  the  Marcionites  had  been 
translated  into  Latin.     Looking  to  the  freedom  with  which 

1  "  Universalism  Asserted,"  p.  164. 


WILLIAM   rUSJKLL.  313 

topics  outside  the  range  of  traditional  orthodoxy  had  been 
discussed  in  Sir  Thomas  More's  '  Utopia,'  it  seems  far  from 
improbable  that  his  intercourse  with  I^rasmus  may  have 
touched  on  the  wider  hope  associated  with  the  name  of 
Origen.  Anyhow,  it  will  hardly  be  disputed  that  wher- 
ever Origen  was  studied  there  was  necessarily  an  opening 
made  for  the  reception  of  the  views  with  which  his  name 
was  identified." ' 

William  Postell,  born  in  Normandy  in  15 10  and  died 
near  Paris  in  1581,  one  of  the  remarkable  scholars  of  his 
time,  was,  as  is  conceded  by  both  Protestants  and  Roman- 
ists, a  believer  in  and  advocate  of  Universalism.  Born 
in  the  Latin  communion,  and  for  a  time  associated  with 
Loyola  and  the  Jesuits,  he  became  a  Protestant  in  middle 
life,  and  spent  a  few  years  at  the  court  of  the  Emperor 
Ferdinand,  until  recalled  to  Paris  by  the  king  of  P" ranee 
and  placed  for  a  second  time  in  the  chair  of  Royal  Pro- 
fessor of  Mathematics  and  Oriental  Languages  in  the  Uni- 
versity. Subsequently  he  retired,  whether  voluntarily  or 
otherwise  is  in  dispute,  to  a  monastery,  where,  solaced  by 
books,  writing  some  of  liis  numerous  works,  and  perhaps 
teaching,  he  closed  his  life.  He  was  somewhat  eccentric 
and  visionary,  but  of  ujjright  life,  (^n  unix'ersal  salvation 
he  expressed  himself  with  grc'al  ijlaiuucss  of  speech: 

"  It  is  necessary  that  death  and  hell,  with  all  remaining 
sins,  should  be  so  utterly  abolisheil  that  not  only  shall  we 
imt  tlie  or  be  condemned  any  more,  but  that  we  shall  de- 
rive an  infinite  advantage  from  the  condemnation  allowed 
up  to  that  time.  I'^)r  since  in  the  freedom  of  his  own  will 
God  made  one  vessel  to  honor  and  another  to  dishonor,  it 
is  necessary  that  each  and  every  one  should  be  restored 
to  liberty  and  to  his  former  C(^ndition,  that  he  who  was  in 
the  highest  reproach  and   (U-speration  ma\-,  after  liis  res- 

1   "  Tlic  spirits  in  I'rison,"  \c\v  Vdrk,   1S85,  p.    190  f. 


314  ^^•^^"    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  ii. 

toration,  be  in  so  much  the  greater  consolation,  and  in  so 
much  the  more  vehement  love,  inasmuch  as  he  is  saved 
from  the  greater  loss  and  danger.  For  this  purpose  Christ 
does  not  hold  the  ke3^s  of  death  and  hell  in  vain,  to  the 
end  that  both  death  and  hell  shall  be  deprived  of  the 
whole  human  race,  and  Satan  with  his  associates,  who 
without  any  infirmity  became  the  author  of  sin,  remain 
alone,  if  you  will,  in  obstinacy  and  bonds." 

And  again  :  "  He  to  whom  belong  all  souls,  who  hates 
nothing  that  he  has  made,  and  will  have  all  men  to  be 
saved,  and  who  is  the  Saviour  of  all,  especially  of  them 
that  believe,  will  lighten  every  man  that  comes  into  the 
world.  But  they  who  persuade  themselves  that  there  is  to 
be  no  restoration  of  all  things  here,  are  content  to  intro- 
duce the  greatest  tyranny  into  the  world,  so  that  Satan 
seems  to  have  destroyed  more  than  Christ  can  restore. 
Oh  the  greatest  impiety !  Satan  with  no  apparent  means 
has  been  ruining  men  to  this  very  day,  and  Christ  by  his 
secret  and  inward  word,  by  his  spirit  and  inspiration,  or 
even  his  faith  infused  by  no  outward  word,  cannot  accom- 
plish as  much  in  saving  as  Satan  does  in  destroying."^ 

One  of  his  "  visionary  "  notions  in  later  life  was  that  a 
union  of  all  religions  was  possible.  In  this  age  such  visions 
are  commended  and  encouraged. 

Entering  the  seventeenth  century,  we  find  at  its  thresh- 
old the  famous  mystic  Jacob  Boehm,  whose  writings  l^rot- 
estant  critics  of  the  present  age  admit  are  now  more 
sought  after  than  at  any  former  time  and  have  had  a  mod- 
ifying effect  on  theology.  A  clear  idea  of  his  system  as  a 
whole  is  difficult  to  grasp  ;  but  one  of  the  prominent  points 
which  it  established  is  thus  expressed  :  "  When  the  fire  shall 
have  destroyed  sin  and  all  the  e\il  works  of  man,  there 

1    Or.  Sawyer's   transhitidii  of   IVtcrscirs  "  M)Nl(.r)  nl   the  Rcsloration  uf 
All  Tilings,"  "  Univcrsalist  (Quarterly,"  1S73,  p.  23  f. 


DA\  JOHN  DAVENANT.  315 

shall  be  a  universal  reconciliation  of  all  to  God,  who  shall 
be  all  in  all,  and  everything  shall  end  in  good;  perfection 
shall  rise  out  of  imperfection."^ 

Antoinette  Bourignon,  a  female  mystic,  born  in  1616, 
says:  "All  was  harmony  until  sin  entered.  But  on  re- 
pentance mankind  shall  be  delivered  from  evil.  .  .  .  The 
flood  only  destroyed  sin,  but  none  of  God's  works.  The 
same  object  shall  be  accomplished  by  fire.  .  .  God  and 
the  creature  shall  have  but  one  mind.  The  whole  world 
shall  become  a  paradise,  and  ever  continue  to  be  such."^ 

Rev.  Dr.  John  Davenant,  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  England, 
pubHshed  in  1627  an  "Exposition  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Colossians,"  and  commenting  on  the  nineteenth  and  twen- 
tieth verses  of  the  first  chapter,  touching  "the  purpose 
and  promise  of  the  rcconciliaticMi  of  all  things,  whether 
they  be  things  in  earth  or  things  in  heaven,"  interprets 
them  to  mean  all  intelligences — as  angels  and  men — 
and  also  the  whole  fabric  of  the  universe,  which,  created 
for  the  use  of  man,  became  through  his  sin  deranged  and 
subjected  to  vanity  and  disorder.  "To  whom,"  he  asks, 
"shall  this  whole  system  of  the  world  owe  its  renovation 
and  restoration?  Without  doubt  to  Christ,  the  Son  of 
God,  our  Creator  and  Redeemer,  who,  by  dying  without 
sin,  deserves  to  be  the  restorer  of  all  tliinos  which  had 
fallen  and  been  affected  by  sin." 

In  1632  appeared  a  work  under  the  title  "  Offene  Hertz 
ens  Pforte,"  i.e.,  "Open  Gates  of  the  Heart,"  puri)orlinc 
to  have  been  written  by  Angelus  Marianus,  which  was 
no  doubt  a  fictitious  name.  It  was  dedicated  to  Axel 
von  Oxen.stiern,  Chancellor  of  Sweden.  The  author  says  : 
"  Through   the  everlasting  gospel  will   all   heathen,  Jews, 

1  "  Univcrsalism  :  That  is,  God  All   \n  All;  "  trnnslation  of,  in  "  Univcr- 
salist  (iMartcrly,"  I.S64,  p.  254. 
fi  jViiei.,  p.  254. 


3l6  THE    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Ciiai'.  ii. 

Turks,  and  even  all  who  are  not  Christians,  be  converted 
to -Christ.  ...  It  is  certain  that  all  the  world  will  be  con- 
verted to  the  Lord,  ...  so  that  they  shall  all  call  upon 
the  name  of  the  Lord,  and  serve  him  with  one  heart.  .  .  . 
Then  will  the  Lord  appear  in  his  glory,  to  renew  and 
beget  again  the  whole  creation ;  .  .  .  and  all  things  shall 
be  made  new,  and  all  old  things  pass  away  like  a  gar- 
ment, and  with  salvation^  and  righteousness  all  shall  be 
made  ready  for  the  marriage  of  the  Lamb,  in  the  paradise 
of  God." 

In  1646  Thomas  Edwards,  a  Presbyterian,  published  in 
three  parts,  in  London,  a  book  entitled  "  Gangraena ;  or, 
A  Catalogue  of  the  Errors  and  Heresies  Vented  in  Eng- 
land in  these  Four  Last  Years,"  etc.  In  the  third  part 
he  mentions  the  prevalence  of  the  heresy  "  that  all  men 
and  even  the  devils  shall  be  saved  at  last,  and  shall  see, 
-feel,  and  possess  blessedness  to  their  everlasting  salvation 
and  comfort." 

In  May,  1648,  Parliament  enacted  a  law  against  several 
errors,  chiefly  various  denials  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trin- 
ity, the  penalty  for  holding  which  was  death  ;  and  several 
others,  and  among  them  "  That  all  men  shall  be  saved," 
the  penalty  for  maintaining  which  was  imprisonment.  How 
long  and  to  what  extent  this  law  was  operative  we  have  no 
means  of  knowing.  The  Presbyterians,  who  were  then  in 
power,  who  intensely  hated  the  Independents,  and  against 
whom  this  legislation  was  most  directly  aimed,  were  soon 
succeeded  by  the  latter,  who  repealed  their  laws.  The 
statute  cited  above  was  enacted  on  the  2d  of  May,  and 
on  the  20th  of  the  same  month  Gerard  Winstanley  pub- 
lished "The  Mystery  of  God,"  in  which  he  says  tliat  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  is  this :  "  That  mankind  shall  be  by 
him  reconciled  to  his  Maker,  and  be  made  one  in  spirit 
,A\ith   him — i.e.,  that  the  curse  shall  be  removed,  and  the 


GERARD    WIXSrANLEV.  317 

power  of  it  killed  and  consumed ;  .  .  .  that  in  the  day  of 
Christ  every  one  shall  be  made  of  one  heart  and  one  spirit 
— i.e.,  that  all  shall  be  brought  in  to  acknowledge  the 
Father,  to  obey  him,  walk  humbly  before  him,  and  live  in 
peace  and  love  in  him."  And  again:  "  As  yet  the  Son 
hath  not  deli\'ered  up  the  kingdom  to  the  Father,  for  he 
must  reign  till  all  enemies  be  subdued,  but  death,  curse, 
and  sorrow  arc  not  yet  quite  subdued,  for  it  reigns  over 
part  of  the  creation  still,  even  over  those  poor  creatures 
that  were  lost,  or  that  did  not  enter  into  the  city,  but 
were  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire.  The  serpent  as  yet  holds 
a  power,  for  there  is  part  of  God's  work  not  yet  delivered 
from  his  bondage  ;  and  the  serpent  would  be  glad,  and  it 
would  be  some  ease  to  his  torment,  if  any  of  God's  works 
might  die  and  perish  with  him.  .  .  .  But  the  serpent  only 
shall  perish,  and  God  will  not  lose  a  hair  that  he  made, 
he  will  redeem  the  whole  creation  from  death." 

William  luirbury  (1652),  appointed  by  Cromwell's  com- 
mittee minister  in  South  Wales,  was  charged  in  the  "  Gan- 
graena  "  with  holding  "  many  gross  errors,  one  of  which  is 
that  of  Universal  Restoration."  Another  of  his  so-called 
"  errors"  was  his  belief  that  the  atonement  was  not  niade 
for  the  purpose  of  affecting  God,  but  of  changing  men. 

Richard  Coppin,  an  Fnglish  preacher,  was  the  author 
of  several  books,  published  between  165 1  and  1659,  in 
defense  of  Universalism.  He  was  the  victim  of  many  and 
bitter  persecutions  for  his  opinions,  but  bore  all  bravely 
and  met  his  enemies  with  undaunted  spirit.  He  preached 
without  compensation,  giving  without  reserve  whatever  his 
friends  urged  upon  him  to  the  poor  and  destitute. 

In  1658  Samuel  Richardson,  a  Baptist  of  London,  pub- 
lished a  work  entitled  "  The  Doctrine  of  Eternal  Hell  Tor- 
ments Overthrown."  The  book  passed  through  numerous 
editions,  the  last  being  the  Boston,   1833.     As  a  speci- 


3l8  THE    IXIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  il. 

men  of  the  author's  style  we  quote  from  chapter  vi.  of 
the  last  edition  :  "  The  doctrine  of  hell  torments  lesseneth 
the  goodness  of  God,  and  limits  it  to  a  few,  whereas  the 
Scripture  declares  it  extends  to  all.  (Rom.  v.,  the  whole 
chapter.)  The  creature  itself  shall  be  delivered  from  the 
bondage  of  eorruptiou  into  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  sons 
of  God.  (Rom.  viii.  21.)  The  whole  creation,  and  every 
creature,  angels  and  men,  Jews  and  Gentiles  (ver.  20,  Mark 
x\  i.  1  5),  in  bondage  to  corruption,  subject  to  vanity,  idola- 
try, and  delusion  of  the  devil,  who  know  not,  nor  partake 
of  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  sons  of  God,  shall  be  deliv- 
ered into  the  said  liberty ;  for  God  was  in  Christ,  reconcil- 
ing the  zcorld  to  himself  (2  Cor.  v.  19.)  This  is  spoken 
to  persuade  them  to  be  reconciled  to  God,  which  shows  it 
to  concern  mankind.  The  Protestants  in  Poland  under- 
stand by  every  creature,  angels  and  men  ;  they  say  there 
will  come  a  time  when  the  angels  and  the  wickedest"  men 
shall  be  free.  Origen,  one  of  the  Fathers,  held  that  all 
should  at  last  be  saved,  men  and  devils.  The  general- 
ity of  the  Fathers  held  that  all  souls  shall  be  purged  by 
the  fire  of  the  last  judgment,  and  so  pass  to  salvation. 
(Moulin,  p.  135.  See  Rom.  xi.  22,  23,  27.)  All  flesh  shall 
see  the  salvation  of  God.  (Luke  iii.  6.  See  i  Tim.  ii.  2>-(^  \ 
Isa.  xlv.  17.)  The  glory  of  the  Lord  shall  be  revealed,  and 
all  flesh  shall  see  it.  (Isa.  xl.  5.)  The  times  of  the  resti- 
tution of  all  things,  ichich  God  hath  spoken  by  the  month 
of  his  holy  prophets  since  the  i^'orld  began.  (.Acts  iii.  21.) 
They  shall  in  time  be  deli\ered  from  their  bondage,  for 
which  deliverance  they  groan.  Are  not  all,  angels  and 
men,  obedient  or  disobedient,  the  creation  of  God?  If 
so,  the  worst  shall  partake  of  the  libert}'  of  the  sons  of 
God." 

Jeremy  or  Jeremiah  White  was  preacher  to  the  Council 
of  State  and  chaplain  in  the  court  and  family  of  Oliver 


JEREMY  WHITE.  319 

Cromwell.  After  the  restoration  of  monarchy  he  retired 
to  private  hfe.  He  was  a  fellow  of  Trinity  College,  Cam- 
bridge. He  Ijxjcame  a  believer  in  Univcrsalism  after  a 
study  of  \arious  systems  of  divinity,  all  of  which  seemed 
to  him  inconsistent  with  the  general  trend  of  the  Script- 
ures in  teaching  that  God  is  good  and  benevolent.  He 
wrote  voluminously  on  the  subject,  but  in  his  later  years 
abridged  what  he  had  first  composed,  and  prepared  it  for 
publication.  It  was  not  given  to  the  public,  however,  until 
after  his  decease,  and  then  withtnit  the  author's  name. 
The  title  to  the  third  edition  was  "  The  Restoration  of 
All  Things ;  or,  A  Vindication  of  the  Goodness  and  Grace 
of  God,  to  be  Manifested  at  Last  in  the  Recovery  of  His 
Whole  Creation  out  of  the  Fall.  By  Jeremy  White,  Chap- 
lain to  Olixer  Cromwell."  This  edition  was  pulilished  by 
John  Denis  &  Son,  London,  who  had  issued  several  books 
on  Univcrsalism;  and  Mr.  Denis,  Sr.,  prefaced  the  work 
with  an  account  of  several  writers  and  their  various  works 
on  the  same  subject.  An  American  edition  appeared  in 
1844.  Mr.  White  was  a  Trinitarian  and  a  decided  predes- 
tinarian  ;  and  his  Univcrsalism  was  highly  prized  by  him 
chiefly  because  it  enabled  him  to  reconcile  the  decrees  of 
God  with  his  infinite  benevolence.  He  began  his  work  in 
devout  supplication  for  divine  wisdom,  and  closed  it  with 
rapturous  thanksgiving.  These  were  theconcludingwords : 
"  We  must  believe  thee  to  be  infinitely  good — to  be  good 
without  any  measure  or  bound — to  be  good  beyond  all 
expression  and  conception  of  all  creatures,  of  men  and 
angels:  or  we  must  give  over  thinking  thee  to  be  good  at 
all.  All  the  goodness  which  is  everywhere  to  be  found 
scattered  among  thy  creatures  is  sent  forth  from  thee,  the 
fountain,  the  sea  of  all  goodness.  Into  this  sea  of  all  good- 
ness I  deliver  my.self  and  all  my  fellow-creatures.  Thou 
art  love,  and  canst  no  more  cease  to  be  so,  than  to  be 


320  •  THE    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  ii. 

thyself.  Take  thy  own  methods  with  us,  and  submit  us 
to  them.  Well  may  we  so  do,  in  an  assurance  that  the 
beginning,  the  way,  and  the  end  of  them  all  is  love. 

"  To  the  inexhaustible  Fountain  of  all  grace  and  good- 
ness, from  all  his  creatures,  be  ascribed  all  glory  and  praise 
forever  and  ever.      Amen.      Hallelujah!" 

In  Holland,  Peter  Scrarius,  a  preacher  at  Amsterdam, 
wrote  and  published  in  1668  a  book  entitled  "The  Fourth 
Book  of  Psalms,  in  which  that  grand  mystery  of  the  re- 
demption of  the  whole  human  race,  hitherto  hidden  from 
the  world,  and  restitution  of  all  things,  is  graphically  de- 
scribed and  proposed  to  all  men  promiscuously."  He 
was  also  the  author  of  another  work,  "  Secret  of  Redemp- 
tion," in  which  he  regards  Universalism  as  the  message  of 
redemption  "  written  for  the  generation  to  come,"  spoken 
of  in  Psalm  cii.  18-20,  and  to  be  manifested  to  the  whole 
world  "  when  Jehovah  shall  look  down  from  the  heights 
of  his  sanctity  into  the  depths  of  the  abyss,  that  he  may 
'  hear  the  groaning  of  the  prisoner  and  loose  those  destined 
to  death,'  or,  as  the  original  has  it,  tJic  sons  of  death,  i.e., 
that  he  may  redeem  even  those  who  by  the  just  judg- 
ment of  God  are  doomed  not  to  life  but  to  death,  and 
have  received  the  sentence  of  death  and  not  of  life."' 

Jane  Lead,  a  well-known  English  mystic,  became  in  the 
latter  part  of  her  life  a  believer  in,  and  through  her  writ- 
ings an  advocate  of,  Universalism.  She  claimed  to  have 
had  from  about  1668  divine  communications  from  the 
world  of  spirits ;  but  twenty-five  years  of  such  experi- 
ences had  elapsed  before  a  clear  revelation  of  the  final 
restoration  of  all  souls  was  made  to  her.  "  For  although 
I  had  heard  of  such  a  doctrine,"  she  says  in  her  treatise 
entitled  "  A  Revelation  of  the  Good  News  of  the  Ever- 

1  Dr.  Sawyer's  translation  of  Petersen  in  "  Christian  Ambassador," 
May  28,  1853. 


JANE  LEAD.  32  I 

lasting  Gospel,"  published  in  1693,  "yet  I  paid  no  regard 
to  it,  and  would  neither  gi\  e  faith  nor  assent  to  the  notion 
that  eternal  love  should  go  out  so  immeasurably  and  finally 
restore  all  fallen  creatures,  without  exception,  till  a  clear 
vision  opened  it  to  me."  Going  to  the  Scriptures  with  a 
glad  heart  in  view  of  the  new  light  that  had  dawned  on 
her,  she  was  surprised  to  find  that  this  great  doctrine  was 
sustained  by  many  clear  proof-texts,  which  her  ignorance 
had  heretofore  hidden  from  her  view.  As  examples  of 
these  she  refers  to  Romans  v.  14-21,  i  Corinthians  xv.  22, 
I  Timothy  ii.  6,  etc.  She  felt  herself  lost  in  what  she  calls 
"the  sweet  harmony  of  love."  The  view  of  a  reconciled 
universe  almost  overpowered  her,  and  she  heard  the  voice 
of  Christ  saying  in  her  heart,  "  Fear  not;  but  go  forth  and 
vindicate  the  infinite  love  of  God,  thy  Creator,  and  the 
priceless  worth  and  virtue  of  the  blood  of  thy  Saviour." 
"  Having  now  something  clear  and  definite  to  say,  and 
something  withal  important  and  worthy  to  be  said,  she 
found  no  difficulty  in  uttering  her  thoughts  in  a  clear  and 
rather  impressive  manner.  She  states  her  views  plainly, 
and  maintains  them  in  a  way  creditable  both  to  her  head 
and  her  heart.  Though  naturally  and  by  habit  averse  to 
all  controversy,  yet  so  profoundly  had  this  subject  moved 
her  that  she  felt  it  to  be  her  duty  to  stand  forth  not  only 
to  announce  but  also  to  defend  a  doctrine  which  was  at 
once  so  sublime  and  so  cheering." 

"  Love  and  light,"  she  said,  "  are  without  limit  or  end, 
I  confess ;  while  death  and  darkness,  the  curse  and  punish- 
ment, must  necessarily  and  unaxoidably  come  to  a  close. 
For  what  has  no  beginning — as  love,  wisdom,  and  good- 
ness— can  have  no  end,  and  must  remain  through  all  eter- 
nities, and  all  that  contradicts  them  must  be  overwhelmed 
and  swallowed  up  and  lost.  Love  overcomes  all.  ...  I 
am  persuaded  that  were  this  doctrine  received  and  under- 


322  THE    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  ii. 

stood  in  its  just  and  deepest  grounds,  it  would  certainly 
overthrow  the  strongholds  of  sin,  and  in  millions  of  souls 
that  are  now  lying  in  darkness  and  ignorance,  it  would 
move  to  tears  over  their  past  life  and  to  repentance  not 
to  be  repented  of.  Yea,  when  love  shall  penetrate  them, 
then  will  it  so  open  their  eyes  that  they  must  mourn  and 
lament  that  have  lived  so  long  only  to  despise  the  blood 
of  the  covenant  of  grace  and  love,  and  to  trample  it  under 
their  feet.  In  the  spirit  of  prophecy  I  clearly  see  that 
the  time  is  coming  when  the  trumpet  of  love  shall  so  be 
sounded  that  it  shall  gather  such  together  from  the  four 
winds  of  heaven  and  out  of  the  dark  corners  of  the  earth, 
that  they  may  eat  of  the  love-feast  which  is  already  pre- 
pared;  but  not  with  unwashen  hands  shall  they  partake. 
For  a  burning  coal  of  love  and  life  shall  come  from  the 
altar,  and  frying  around  shall  touch  and  purify  such  souls 
as  have  long  been  lying  under  the  power  of  sin  and  death. 
.  .  .  For  the  day  is  breaking  and  the  acceptable  year 
appears."^ 

"  Dialogues  on  the  General  Restitution  of  the  Creation  " 
was  the  title  of  an  anonymous  French  book  published  in 
Cologne  in  1697.  The  author's  argument  seems  to  be 
based  on  a  comparison  between  the  first  and  the  second 
Adam,  and  between  the  offense  introduced  by  the  first 
and  the  grace  introduced  by  the  second.  The  latter 
must  not  be  less  general  or  less  effective  than  the  former. 
"  The  writer,"  says  Petersen,  "  was  an  eminent  personage." 

At  some  time  in  the  seventeenth  century  prior  to  1690, 
which  is  the  date  of  a  Latin  translation  of  the  English, 
there  appeared  a  volume  entitled  "  Philosophical  Tracts," 
a  posthumous  work ;  the  first  tract  in  the  collection  being 
from  the  pen  of  the  Viscountess  of  Conwa}',  a  sister  of 

1  Paper  on  Jane  Lead,  by  Rev.  Dr.  T.  J.  Sawyer,  in  "  Christian  Ambas- 
sador," June  30,  i860. 


THE    VISCOUNTESS   OF   CONWAY.  323 

Heneage  r^inch,  Chancellor  of  ICn^iand,  and  a  pupil  of 
"  the  learned  and  pious  Dr.  Henry  More."  She  was,  says 
the  biographer  of  Dr.  More,  "  mistress  of  the  highest  the- 
ories in  philosophy  and  religion."  Although  an  invalid 
from  her  youth  and  subject  to  intolerable  pains  of  body, 
yet  she  mastered  all  the  mental  science  of  her  day  and 
sought  relief  from  pain  in  the  most  abstruse  studies.  She 
was  a  clear  and  vigorous  thinker  and  a  terse  writer.  It 
was  a  fundamental  truth  with  her  that  the  justice  of  God 
must  always  be  connected  with  his  goodness,  that  there 
can  be  no  opposition  between  his  attributes ;  goodness 
without  justice  being  weakness,  and  justice  without  good- 
ness becoming  revenge.  In  accord  with  this  fundamental 
position  she  says : 

"The  common  notion  of  the  justice  of  God  that  every 
sin,  be  it  ever  so  little,  is  punished  with  infernal  fire,  and 
that  without  end,  begets  in  men  a  horrible  idea  of  God, 
as  if  he  were  rather  a  cruel  tyrant  than  a  kind  Father  to 
all  his  creatures.  But  if  the  amiable  representation  of  God 
should  become  better  known,  as  it  exists  in  truth  and  as 
it  is  manifested  in  all  his  dispensations  to  all  his  creatures, 
and  if  our  minds  should  in  their  inward  sense  and  relish 
recognize  him  as  love  and  kindness  itself,  such  as  he  in- 
wardly re\-eals  himself  in  the  hearts  of  men  through  the 
light  and  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  then,  and  not  till 
then,  will  men  love  God  above  all  things,  and  acknowledge 
him  to  be  the  most  just  as  well  as  the  most  compassionate 
and  adorable  of  all  beings,  who  is  incapable  of  punishing 
all  sinners  with  equal  punishment.  And  this  punishment 
must  be  equal,  if  an  infinite  duration  of  punishment  in  a 
lake  burning  with  fire  and  brimstone  awaits  sin,  however 
one  may  be  punished  more  mildly  and  another  more 
severely." 

In  another  passage  she  is,  if  possible,  still  more  explicit 


324  ^'-^^^^    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  ii. 

as  to  the  purpose  and  effect  of  the  divuie  justice  and  the 
punishment  it  inflicts.  "  As  all  the  punishments  inflicted 
by  God  upon  his  creatures  have  some  proportion  to  their 
sins,  so  all  these,  even  the  worst  not  excepted,  tend  to 
their  good  and  restoration,  and  thus  resemble  medicines 
designed  to  cure  the  diseases  of  those  creatures  and  restore 
them  to  a  better  condition  than  any  previously  possessed." 

Prefixed  to  the  original  EngHsh  edition,  and  preserved 
in  Ward's  "  Life  of  Dr.  Henry  More,"  is  an  account  of  the 
life  of  the  countess  and  a  warm  commendation  of  her  writ- 
ings. "  So  sincere  and  pious  a  spirit  breathing  in  them," 
as  he  expresses  it,  "  it  was  thought  by  some  to  make  them 
public ;  it  being  hopeful  that  these  broken  fragments  of  so 
entire  and  sincere  a  soul  may  prove  the  bread  of  life  to  as 
many  as  have  an  unfeigned  hunger  after  true  holiness  and 
righteousness."  Would  it  be  unfair  to  infer  from  this 
that  Dr.  More  also  entertained  the  views  of  his  eminent 
pupil  ?^ 

Dr.  Thomas  Burnet,  "  a  clergyman  of  eminent  genius, 
learning,  and  virtue,"  says  Macaulay,  wrote,  about  the  close 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  although  it  was  not  published 
until  after  his  death,  a  treatise  "  On  the  State  of  the  Dead," 
in  which  he  vigorously  assailed  the  doctrine  of  the  eternity 
of  punishment.  That  he  might  have  the  judgment  of  his 
friends  on  his  work  he  caused  a  few  copies  to  be  printed. 
Advised  to  keep  the  dissertation  to  himself  and  not  let 
his  sentiments  be  known,  the  work  was  laid  aside.  One 
of  these  privately  printed  copies  being  found  in  his  study 
after  his  decease,  several  more  copies  were  printed  for  a 
very  few  persons,  as' it  was  thought  by  his  learned  friends 
a  great  pity  that  so  elaborate  a  work  should  be  entirely 
lost.  A  pledge  of  secrecy  was  extorted  from  all  who  re- 
ceived copies,  and  they  were  cautioned  against  allowing  it 
1  See  "  Universalist  Quarterly,"  icSiSg,  p.  288. 


DR.    THOMAS   BURNET. 


i^':) 


to  be  copied  or  sent  to  the  press.  In  some  way,  howevt:r, 
the  work  came  into  the  possession  of  a  printer  in  Hol- 
land, where  a  surreptitious  edition  was  pubhshed ;  where- 
upon Dr.  Burnet's  friend,  in  whose  hands  were  the  origi- 
nal manuscripts,  issued  a  corrected  edition  in  1727. 

Having  established  the  reasonableness  of  the  expecta- 
tion of  a  future  life,  he  proceeds  to  set  forth  his  view  of 
the  last  judgment,  after  which  human  souls  would  undergo 
a  purification  by  fire.  This,  he  said,  was  the  opinion  of 
Origen,  but  he  adds :  "  We  ought  not  to  fancy,  as  some 
imagine,  that  this  opinion  concerning  this  fiery  purgation 
and  trial  is  peculiar  to  Origen,  when  it  was  common  to 
almost  all  the  Fathers  to  the  time  when  St.  Austin  li\-ed." 
He  affirmed  that  at  the  time  of  Austin  (a.D.  600)  this 
opinion  of  the  Fathers  had  begun  to  decline,  and  was 
finally  corrupted  into  the  purgatory  of  the  Papal  Church. 
I  le  aimed  to  restore  the  opinions  of  the  Fathers  on  this 
suliject.  The  great  question  with  regard  to  the  continu- 
ance of  pain  to  the  wicked  was,  in  his  judgment,  the  most 
significant  of  any  relating  to  a  future  life.  "  Whether," 
he  says,  "  those  punishments  are  to  endure  eternally,  with- 
out cessation,  without  relaxation,  without  end?  .  .  .  The 
soul  flies  from  the  very  thought  and  abhors  the  remem- 
brance of  everlasting  misery;  and  several  things  have 
occurred  to  me  while  I  have  been  thinking  on  this  sub- 
ject, by  which  I  am  sensible  that  others  have  been  per- 
suaded, as  well  as  myself,  that  God  neither  will  nor  can 
endure  the  perpetual  affliction  and  torment  of  his  own 
creatures;  nor  can  nature  itself  endure  it.  Then  we  con- 
ceive the  God  of  the  Christians  to  be  the  best  and  wisest 
of  Beings:  that  he  is  neither  cruel  nor  unjust  to  the  race 
of  men ;  that  there  is  nothing  barbarous  or  dismal  in  his 
worship;  that  he  has  neither  instituted  nor  suffered  any- 
thing  that    is   barbarous,   anything   that   is   inhuman ;    no 


326  THE    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  ii. 

blood,  or  wounds,  or  tearing  of  the  skin  or  flesh ;  nor 
does  he  love,  after  the  manner  of  Moloch,  to  embrace  liv- 
ing infants  with  his  arms  of  fire.  Besides,  Jesus,  the  Head 
and  the  Captain  of  the  Christian  dispensation,  to  whom  the 
Father  has  committed  all  judgment,  is  the  greatest  lover 
of  humankind  ;  and  suffered  his  own  blood  to  be  shed  to 
redeem  us  from  evil  and  misery.  This  King  and  merciful 
Father  and  this  most  righteous  Judge  govern  entirely  the 
fates  of  humankind;  and  yet  you  assert  that,  according 
to  the  sacred  Scriptures,  the  greatest  part  of  humankind 
will  be  damned  to  eternal  punishments,  even  by  the  most 
merciful  Father,  by  this  most  righteous  Judge.  .  .  .  Con- 
cerning the  number  of  those  who  will  be  miserable  in 
another  life  I  have  nothing  to  say,  not  being  able  to  know 
anything  of  it ;  but  that  God  should  condemn  his  own 
creatures  to  a  state  of  eternal  misery,  and  should  retain 
them  in  that  state,  seems  to  be  repugnant  both  to  divine 
wisdom  and  goodness,  and  I  may  add,  likewise  to  justice: 
I  say  repugnant  to  wisdom ;  for  a  state  like  this,  of  ever- 
lasting and  unchangeable  misery,  would  be  in  vain  and  of 
no  use,  and  therefore  unwise  and  unworthy  of  God ;  for  a 
torment  without  cessation  and  without  end  can  neither  be 
of  service  to  God  nor  to  man.  Not  to  man  most  certainly, 
if  there  is  no  room  for  repentance,  and  he  who  is  tor- 
mented can  never  grow  better ;  if  no  intermission  and 
no  ease  is  allowed,  that  the  tormented  may  respire  a  little 
and  deliberate  concerning  the  change  of  his  state  and  his 
mind.  Let  this  punishment  be  severe,  let  it  be  bitter, 
nay,  let  it  be  lasting,  but  let  it  at  length  have  an  end  ; 
it  can  otherwise  produce  no  fruit,  no,  not  the  least  degree 
of  it ;  nor  would  it  be  possible  for  these  miserable  sinners 
to  repent  and  lead  better  lives,  if  amidst  the  pangs  of  their 
bodies  and  their  minds  they  should  haj)pen  to  be  born 
again.  By  what  argument  will  you   pretend  to  con- 


DR.    THOMAS   BURNET.  327 

vince  me  that  the  souls  of  the  wicked  are  after  death  In- 
curable ?  The  Fathers  seem  not  to  have  believed  that, 
who  were  of  opinion  that  the  last  would  be  a  purgative 
fire.  .  .  .  Nor  does  it  seem  just  to  limit  the  divine  power 
and  wisdom  and  to  oppress  it  with  an  evil,  irresistible  des- 
tiny, or  an  incurable  disease ;  for  whatever  this  distemper 
of  souls  may  be,  if  it  can  by  any  method  or  any  medicine 
be  driven  out,  no  remedy  certainly  is  more  powerful  or 
more  effectual  than  fire  or  than  fiery  torments ;  this  pain, 
if  any,  will  cause  them  to  be  touched  with  a  sense  of  their 
former  crimes,  and  to  grow  weary  of  their  present  misery. 
Besides,  in  that  other  life  there  will  be  no  longer  room  for 
the  infidelity  of  the  wicked  :  '  When  they  shall  have  seen 
Christ  coming  in  the  clouds,  surrounded  with  glory  and 
with  his  mighty  angels,  triumphing  everywhere  over  his 
enemies,  and  trampling  them  under  his  feet.'  And  then 
that  fomentation  of  evil  which  dwells  in  this  body  and  this 
flesh  will,  in  that  state,  be  extinguished  and  cease.  There 
w^ill  be  no  internal  concupiscence,  no  external  nourish- 
ment of  vice,  nor  any  allurements  to  pleasure,  to  ambi- 
tion, or  avarice,  or  any  incitements  of  the  senses  or  pas- 
sions to  wickedness.  For  my  part,  I  cannot  perceive  by 
what  argument,  true  or  false,  or  by  what  impulse,  internal 
or  external,  they  can  be  moved  to  adhere  eternally  to  their 
vices  and  impiety,  unless  they  should  be  hardened  by  God 
himself.  .  .  .  The  man  whom  God  created,  liable  to  fall, 
him,  because  he  fell,  God  will  not  punish  eternally;  nor 
will  he  deprive  liim  to  wh(^m  he  has  gi\-en  the  power,  or 
rather  the  impotence  and  the  liberty  of  falling  into  vice, 
of  the  power  and  liberty  of  relinciuishing  that  vice.  lUit 
you  will  say,  perhaps,  that  God  docs  not  deprive  the  wicked 
of  this  power  and  liberty,  but  it  proceeds  from  their  own 
will,  that  they  j^ersist  in  o\il,  immovable  and  inflexible.  I 
answer  that  according  to  your  lu'pothesis  God  has  created 


328  THE    UN/VERSA  LISTS.  [Chap.  ii. 

them  of  such  a  nature  that  they  cannot  be  otherwise  than 
inflexible  and  irrecoverable  after  they  have  once  departed 
this  life  and  descended  into  their  torments.  Grant  me  but 
this,  that  those  miserable  creatures  are  capable  of  repenting, 
and  we  will  not  throw  away  all  hope  of  their  being  received 
into  grace ;  but  you  deny  that  they  can  repent ;  I  desire 
that  you  would  prove  that  their  repentance  is  impossible. 
If  they  continue  to  be  reasonable  creatures,  indued  with 
understanding  and  will,  they  can  repent;  but  if  they  are 
deprived  of  reason  and  liberty,  they  can  no  longer  sin." 

Taking  up  the  Greek  word  aioiiios  and  other  words  and 
terms  used  in  the  Bible  to  denote  the  continuance  of  pun- 
ishments, he  shows  that  they  are  often  used  in  a  limited 
sense,  and  very  jjroperly  concludes :  "  Therefore,  from  the 
use  and  force  of  the  aforesaid  words,  nothing  can  cer- 
tainly be  determined  concerning  the  eternity  of  infernal 
punishments."  ^ 

The  eighteenth  century  opened  with  spirited  contests 
between  Universalists  and  their  opponents.  In  the  first 
ten  years  John  William  Petersen  published  in  Germany 
three  folio  volumes  of  Universalist  history  and  doctrine, 
entitled  "  The  Mystery  of  the  Restoration  of  All  Things." 
When  in  his  twenty-eighth  year  Petersen  was  appointed 
professor  of  poetry  at  Rostock ;  afterward  he  was  super- 
intendent at  Liibeck,  then  court  preacher  at  Lutin,  and  in 
1688  superintendent  at  Liineburg.  Cited  before  the  Con- 
sistory at  Zelle,  in  1692,  for  preaching  Universalism,  and 
not  being  induced  to  renounce  it,  he  was  deprived  of  his 
office  and  forced  into  private  life.  Retiring  to  Magdeburg, 
he  devoted  the  remainder  of  his  life,  which  closed  in  1727, 
to  religion  and  literature.  Johanna  Eleonora  von  Merlaw, 
who  became  his  wife  in  1680,  embraced  Universalist  views 
and  wrote  in  defense  of  them   before  her  husband  came 

*  Editit)!!  of  1733,  i^.   163  f.,  pp.  342  ff. 


PK  7  ERSEN—Dl  1  /■;  I.  MA  IR. 


329 


into  the  full  lit^ht  of  the  truth.  But  when  his  mind  was 
fully  satisfied  in  regard  to  it  his  great  aim  in  all  after-life 
was  its  advocacy  and  defense.  Besides  the  three  volumes 
before  mentioned  on  "  The  Restoration  of  All  Things,"  he 
wrote  and  publisiied  other  books  and  tracts  in  exposition 
of  his  views  and  in  answer  to  attacks  on  them.  In  the 
second  and  third  volumes  of  his  great  work  he  has  also 
replies  to  many  who  had  attacked  his  faith.  "  Many  per- 
sons," says  Mosheim,  "  gave  assent  to  these  opinions,  espe- 
cially among  the  laity  ;  but  Petersen  was  also  opposed  by 
great  numbers ;  to  w^hom  he  replied  very  fully,  as  he  had 
a  fruitful  genius  and  abundance  of  leisure."  Mosheim 
himself  entered  the  lists,  and  in  1 725,  on  the  solicitation 
of  friends,  gave  a  tract  in  "  Defense  of  an  Endless  Hell." 
Petersen  replied  to  him  in  two  {publications,  concerning 
which  Mosheim  said  :  "  I  shall  regard  them  as  if  the}-  had 
never  been  prepared.  If  he  has  so  much  confidence  in 
the  correctness  of  his  opinion,  what  is  the  use  of  sending 
book  after  book  upon  it  into  the  world?  "  A  sharp  word, 
which  must,  if  it  had  any  force  whatever,  have  been  as 
pertinent  against  Petersen's  opposers. 

Ditelmair,  who  wrote  against  Universalism  in  the  middle 
of  the  century,  says  :  "  How  many  and  how  deadly  commo- 
tions in  the  Church  of  Christ  that  \-ery  celebrated  dogma 
concerning  the  apokatastasis  of  all  things,  or  the  end  of 
infernal  pains,  which  they  would  have  to  be  understood  by 
thi?;  phrase,  can,  I  think,  escape  no  one  who  is  not  wholl}- 
ignorant  of  affairs  transacted  in  the  religious  world.  For 
not  only  in  ancient  times  was  it  often  disputed  concerning 
this  subject,  but  also  in  the  recent  age  there  were  num- 
berless contests  waged  by  the  enemies  of  the  infinite  jus- 
tice of  God  against  the  received  opinions  of  the  orthodox 
church  concerning  eternal  punishments;  contests  which 
raged  vehemently  enough  within   the  \ery  bounds  of  the 


330  THE    UNIVEKSALISTS.  [Chap.  ii. 

orthodox  church,  in  the  end  of  the  last  century  and  the 
beginning  of  the  present." 

Speaking  of  those  who  chiimed  Clemens  Alexandrinus 
and  others  of  the  Fathers  as  holding  Universalist  views, 
Ditelmair  says :  "  More  than  by  the  rest,  this  was  done  by 
that  most  noted  one  in  these  controversies,  John  William 
Petersen,  a  man  otherwise  not  to  be  despised,  second  to 
few  in  piety  and  erudition,  but  often  indulging  his  own 
fancy  immoderately  ;  from  whom,  though  a  hundred  times 
refuted,  no  one  has  yet  tried  to  take  away  his  historical 
weapons."  This  Ditelmair  now  attempts  to  do,  with  what 
success  may  be  judged  by  the  remark  of  Muenscher,  in 
his  "  Manual  of  Dogmatic  History  "  (vol.  ii.,  p.  506) :  "  His 
grounds  are  nearly  all  wholly  untenable." 

One  of  the  most  noteworthy  treatises  or  tracts  in  Peter- 
sen's great  work  was  entitled  "  The  Everlasting  Gospel," 
purporting  to  be  written  by  Paul  Siegvolck,  a  name  as- 
sumed by  George  Klein-Nicolai,  a  German  preacher,  who, 
on  account  of  his  advocacy  of  Universalism,  was  deposed  as 
pastor  at  Friessdorf.  The  title  of  the  treatise  was  a  favorite 
one,  especially  with  German  advocates  of  our  faith,  in  that 
and  the  preceding  century.  It  was  of  itself  an  avowal 
that  there  are  no  limits  to  the  work  of  Christ.  Siegvolck's 
work,  appearing  as  it  did  at  a  time  when  much  interest 
was  manifest  in  the  question  which  it  discussed,  attained 
great  popularity  and  passed  through  at  least  five  editions 
before  the  close  of  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
Several  pens  were  kept  busy  in  contro\erting  it,  and  its 
author  continued  to  write  replies  and  to  publish  additional 
defenses  of  his  faith  until  about  1730.  Among  his  later 
works  was  a  reply  to  Mosheim's  tract,  before  referred  to. 

John  David  Schaeffer  was  contemporary  with  Klein- 
Nicolai.  He  was  a  preacher  at  Franken,  and  on  account  of 
liis  publishing  two  works,  one  on  ihc  "  Doctrine  of  the  Mil- 


GERMAN  BELIE  VERS.  3  3  I 

lennial  Reign  of  Christ,"  and  the  other  entitled  "  The  Ever- 
lasting Gospel,"  gave  up  his  office  sooner  than  renounce  his 
views.  Rev.  Dr.  Sawyer  remarks  that :  "  Nearly,  perhaps 
quite  all  those  who  at  that  time  maintained  the  notion  that 
Christ  was  to  reign  on  earth  a  thousand  years,  connected 
the  doctrine  of  universal  salvation  with  it." 

Another  .Univcrsalist  contemporary  was  Christopher 
Schuetz,  author  of  a  work  entitled  "The  Golden  Rose." 
Of  these  three  persons  we  shall  make  furtlier  mention 
when  we  come  to  speak  of  the  first  printed  attack  on 
Universalism  in  America. 

The  German  Baptists,  commonly  known  as  the  "  Bun- 
kers," although  they  prefer  to  be  called  "The  Brethren," 
originated  in  the  \illage  of  Schwartzenau,  in  1708,  and 
chose  one  of  their  original  number  (eight  persons),  Alex- 
ander Mack,  for  their  minister.  They  were  believers  in 
Universalism.  Of  their  subsequent  removal  to  America 
we  shall  speak  in  another  place. 

In  1726  John  Henry  Ilaug,  professor  at  Strasburg,  with 
the  assistance  of  ICrncst  Christoph  Hochman,  De  Marsay, 
John  Conrad,  [Christian]  Dippel,  and  others,  began  the 
publication  of  the  "  Berleburger  Bibel,"  an  entirely  new 
[German]  translation  and  commentary  of  the  Scriptures, 
in  which  they  taught  and  defended  Universalism,  from 
the  mystical  standpoint.  The  work  fills  eight- large  folio 
volumes,  and  was  completed  in  1742.  De  Marsay  was 
born  in  France,  and  a  volume  of  his  "  Discourses  on  Sub- 
jects Relating  to  the  Spiritual  Tife  "  was  translated  from 
the  French,  and  publislied  in  Eflinburgh  in  1749.  The 
English  edition  contains  a  sketch  of  his  life  and  opinions. 
Both  the  sketch  and  the  discourses  give  proof  of  his  belief 
in  Universalism. 

In  1727  Ludwig  Gerhard,  professor  of  theology  in  the 
Uni\-ersity  of  Rostock,  wrolc  and  piil)lislicd  "  A  Complete 


332  THE    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  ii. 

System  of  the  Everlasting  Gospel  of  the  Restoration  of 
All  Things ;  Together  with  the  Unfounded  Opposite  Doc- 
trine of  Endless  Damnation,"  etc.  This  also  contained 
an  examination  of  Mosheim's  tract,  and  excited  much  at- 
tention and  interest.  It  was  a  large  and  learned  work. 
Walch,  in  his  "  Introduction  to  the  Religious  Controver- 
sies in  the  Lutheran  Church,"  mentions  no  less  than  four- 
teen volumes  which  it  called  forth  in  a  short  time. 

In  1742  an  anonymous  work,  entitled  "  Theosophic 
Heart  Devotions,"  was  published.  It  is  attributed  to 
Ernst  August,  Duke  of  Saxe-Weimar.  The  first  part  of 
the  volume  is  purely  devotional;  the  second  part  consists 
of  various  considerations  upon  the  Divine  Wisdom  and 
Goodness.  The  doctrine  of  Universalism  is  brought  out 
clearly. 

In  vol.  xi.  (year  1747)  of  the  "Acta  Historica-Ecclesi- 
astica,"  published  at  Weimar,  appeared  the  following: 

"  Recent  History  of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Restoration  of 
All  Things. 

"  The  doctrine  of  the  restoration  of  the  damned  is  mak- 
ing of  late  here  and  there,  and  especially  in  the  Elector- 
ate of  Brandenburg,  no  little  commotion.  There  are  men, 
both  clerical  and  lay,  who  engage  in  the  controversy  on 
one  side  and  the  other.  Among  these  is  Provost  and  In- 
spector Siegmund  Baerensprung,  at  Neuangermunde,  who, 
as  early  as  1739,  published  under  his  own  name  a  work  of 
368  pp.  8vo,  under  the  title  '  The  Restoration  of  All  Things 
to  Their  Good  Original  State  at  the  Creation,  Exhibited 
According  to  its  Proof  and  Counter-proof.'  In  this  work 
the  author  took  great  pains  to  explain  the  Hebrew  and 
Greek  words  by  which  eternity  is  expressed,  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  remove  the  principal  objection  to  the  res- 
toration, and  also  to  convince  his  readers  that  this  doc- 
trine is  founded  on  the  eternal  priesthood  of  Christ;  on 


GERMAN   WRITINGS.  333 

the  universal  monarchy  of  his  kingdom ;  on  all  the  divine 
attributes ;  yea,  on  botli  Scripture  and  reason,  and  thus 
indeed  that  pardon  is  promised  to  Lucifer  himself  and  the 
whole  host  of  wicked  spirits. 

"  Next  to  him  an  old  inspector  at  Wusterhausen  by  the 
name  of  Woelner  published  a  restorationist  Catechism 
under  the  following  title :  '  The  Holy  Doctrine  of  the  Res- 
toration of  All  Things,  Briefly  but  Satisfactorily  Exhibited 
to  the  Simplest  Capacity  from  the  Word  of  God,  in  Ques- 
tion and  Answer.'  The  old  man  teaches  the  doctrine  pub- 
licly from  the  pulpit,  and  jjrox-es  it,  among  other  things, 
by  these  words :  '  He  will  lose  his  gray  head — nay,  he 
will  pledge  his  soul — if  it  is  not  true.'  In  his  Catechism 
he  sets  forth  his  opinion  as  gloriously  as  if  he  believed  it 
profitable  for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  in- 
struction in  righteousness,  and  that  it  would  awaken  men 
out  of  the  sleep  of  security  and  incite  them  to  true  holi- 
ness. This  indeed  he  expresses  in  a  special  hymn,  which 
he  subjoins. 

"  Those  who  would  be  particularly  pious  abo\-e  others 
teach  and  confess  this  doctrine  to  one  another,  and  indus- 
triously read  '  Siegvolck's  Everlasting  Gospel,'  which  Restel 
some  time  ago  republished  with  some  bad  annotations ; 
insomuch  that  Whiston's  prophecy  in  his  '  Eternity  of 
Hell  Torments,'  that  this  doctrine  would  soon  come  to 
be  publicly  preached,  seems  to  be  already  fulfilled,  as  was 
remarked  in  1745,  in  the  thirteenth  number  of  the  Altona 
'  Literary  Times.'  In  the  Berlin  '  State  and  Literary  Times  ' 
of  1742,  in  the  one  hundred  and  fifty-first  number,  we 
read  the  open-hearted  confession:  'We  cannot  deny  that 
the  doctrine  of  the  restoration  of  the  damned  finds  such 
sound  proofs  in  s(nind  reason,  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and 
even  in  the  justice  and  mercy  of  God  himself,  that  no  one 
has  yet,at  least,  been  fully  able  to  overthrow  them.'  "  Then, 


334  ^'^^^'    UXIJ'ERSAL/srS.  [Chap.  II. 

after  quoting  in  full  the  title  of  ""Restel's  New  Edition  of 
Siegvolck  or  Klein-Nicolai's  Book,"  the  writer  adds: 

"  Before  proceeding  farther,  we  must  mention  that  in 
the  very  same  year  in  which  an  attempt  was  made  to 
extend  the  doctrine  of  the  restoration  through  the  work 
of  Baerensprung,  another  man  in  the  neighboring  Pome- 
rania  set  himself  in  opposition  to  it.  For  there  was  pub- 
lished '  A  Confession  of  the  Love  of  God  According  to 
the  Truth,  in  the  Doctrine  of  Endless  Punishment,  Drawn 
up  from  his  own  Conviction,  and  Published  for  the  Con- 
firmation of  Others,  by  Jacob  Voss.'  Stettin,  1739,  8vo, 
152  pp.  In  this  work  the  author  labored  to  meet  the  friends 
of  the  restoration  on  the  ground  of  reason  and  Scripture. 

"  Meanwhile  there  were  not  wanting  advocates  of  the  res- 
toration after  this.  For  when  John  Ernest  Schubert,  then 
adjunct  at  Jena,  and  now  superintendent  at  Stadthagen, 
had  published  in  quarto,  at  Jena,  in  1741,  his  'Rational 
Thoughts  on  the  Eternity  of  Hell  Punishments,'  we  im- 
mediately see  '  The  Universal  Love  and  Grace  of  God,  in 
the  Salvation  of  All  Men,  Interspersed  with  Remarks  upon 
Schubert's  "  Rational  Thoughts  on  the  Eternity  of  Hell 
Punishments."  By  a  Friend  of  the  Truth.'  Frankfort  and 
Leipzig,  1742,  8vo,  pp.  368.  The  author  remained  anony- 
mous, chose  obscure  methods  in  the  publication  of  his 
book,  and  employed  such  an  obscure  style  that  he  who 
would  understand  him  finds  no  little  trouble.  But  scarcely 
was  his  work  before  the  public,  when  Schubert  brought 
out  anew  his  tract  mentioned  above,  enlarged  it  by  Script- 
ure proofs,  and  made  short  work  with  his  opposer.  The 
title  is  '  Rational  and  Scriptural  Thoughts  on  the  Eternity 
of  Hell  Punishments,  Together  with  a  Vindication  of  Him- 
self against  an  Anonymous  P'riend  of  the  Restoration.' 
4to,  592  pp.    . 

"  Last  year  there  appeared  against  Mosheim  a  '  Script- 


GERMAX   WRIIIXCS.  335 

iiral  and  Rational  Consideration  of  the  Proofs  for  and 
against  the  landless  Misery  of  the  Transgressors  of  G(k1's 
Law,  and  their  UUiiiiate  Restoration  and  Reestabhsli- 
ment  in  liohness;  Occasioned  by  Moshcim's  "  Thoughts 
on  the  Doctrine  of  the  End  of  Hell  Punishments,"  and 
Set  Forth  with  All  Modesty,  Out  of  Love  for  the  Truth, 
and  the-  Deepest  Reverence  for  the  Infinite  Merit  of  Christ.' 
P^rankfort  and  Leipzig,  1747,  8vo,  272  pp. 

"This  work  was  praised  in  the  Berlin  'Times,'  No.  131, 
and  still  was  f©und  fault  with,  because  the  author  does 
not  show  how  punishments  can  beget  true  \irtue,  since 
this  must  spring  from  love  ;  and  wishes  to  parley,  as  it 
were,  on  the  supposition  of  a  year  of  jubilee,  and  to  make 
a  thousand  years  out  of  every  year  or  every  day.  After  a 
while  it  was  discovered  that  Schlitte,  the  adjunct  inspector 
at  Wusterhausen,  w'as  the  author  of  this  work,  and  that  it 
was  published  at  the  expense  of  a  wealthy  nobleman,  who 
Is  deeply  interested  in  this  doctrine.  The  author  has  here 
opposed  particularly  the  appendix  of  Mosheim  in  the  first 
volume  of  his  Sermons,  and  examined  the  letter  which  he 
published  in  the  second  volume  against  Pagenkop.  He 
has  also  subjoined  a  peculiar  appendix.  P"or  a  French 
work  under  the  title,  '  The  System  of  the  Theologians, 
Ancient  and  Modern,  Reconciled  by  the  Exposition  of 
Different  Opinions  upon  the  State  of  Souls  Separated 
from  the  Body.  In  Fourteen  Letters,'  had  been  pub- 
lished in  London,  first  in  1731  and  afterward  in  1733  and 
1739,  8vo.  In  this  work  the  author  maintained  the  res- 
toration of  all  things,  and  also  the  doctrine  of  a  middle 
state  for  souls  after  death.  In  a  second  part,  '  Sequel  to 
the  System,'  etc.,  he  vindicated  his  opinion  against  a  work, 
'  P^xamination  of  Origenism.  By  Professor  R.'  This  work 
Schlitte  introduces  and  praises  as  one  in  whicii  the  restora- 
tion is  clearly  pro\-cd,  and  he  presents  it  as  an  evidence 


336  THE    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  ii. 

that  this  doctrine  is  revealed  in  the  Scriptures  and  written 
in  every  heart,  and  must  be  true,  because  two  persons  so 
far  removed  from  one  another  have  been  brought  into  it. 
But  notwithstanding  this,  he  finds  some  very  suspicious 
principles  in  it,  which  he  points  out,  and  to  which  he  will 
give  no  countenance." 

These  are  all  the  books  in  favor  of  Universalism  men- 
tioned ;  and  the  article  concludes  with  a  notice  of  opposing 
works,  and  chiefly  those  sustaining  the  position  of  Mosheim. 
The  article  is  very  instructive  as  showing  the  extent  of 
public  interest  in  the  discussion.  Later  in  the  century  the 
proofs  multiply  that  Universalism  had  obtained  a  deeply 
rooted  place  in  the  minds  of  German  theologians.  Michael 
Hahn,  John  Augustine  Eberhard,  Samuel  Mursinna,  Jung 
Stilling,  Gottfried  Steinhart,  John  Frederick  Gruner,  and 
the  renowned  Schleiermacher  contributed  greatly  to  this 
result. 

Professor  (afterward  President)  Sears  announced  in  1834, 
as  the  result  of  his  observation  and  inquiry  in  Germany, 
that  "  the  current  hypothesis  [there]  is  that  in  the  middle 
state,  intervening  between  death  and  the  resurrection,  the 
righteous  will  gradually  attain  to  perfection ;  and  that  to 
all  the  wicked,  whether  men  or  angels,  the  gospel  will  be 
preached,  and  that  they  will  ultimately  accept  it  and  be 
restored."  And  to-day  Universalism  is  not  regarded  in 
that  country  as  a  heresy,  whether  held  by  the  Orthodox 
or  by  Rationalists. 

Universalism  was  carried  to  Holland  at  an  early  date 
by  the  Anaba})tists,  and  made  part  of  the  theology  of  the 
Mennonites,  who  succeeded  them.  It  was  on  the  authority 
of  Stoschius,  in  his  "  History  of  the  Eighteenth  Centur\-," 
maintained  by  Samuel  Crellius,  a  preacher  and  author  in 
the  first  half  of  that  period.  "  I  remember,"  says  the  his- 
torian, "  that   Crellius,   whom  I  visited  at   Amsterdam   in 


TAUGirr  IX  HOLLAND.  ^^ 

1742,  and  with  whom  I  had  much  conversation  on  many- 
heads  of  the  Christian  doctrine,  declared,  witli  some  emo- 
tion, that  he  did  not  follow  the  opinions  of  Socinus,  but 
cordially  believed  in  the  doctrine  of  the  satisfaction  of 
Christ,  as  it  was  taught  by  the  Remonstrants,  and  was 
persuaded  that  all  men  will  be  finally  saved  by  Jesus 
Christ,  and  delivered  from  the  torments  of  hell." 

At  the  present  time  Universalism  is  so  far  favorably 
received  in  Holland  as  to  be  advocated  in  its  periodicals. 
R.  Cremer,  in  a  recent  article  on  "  The  Dogma  of  Eternal 
Punishment,"  after  noticing  the  arguments  in  its  favor,  and 
also  those  relating  to  the  annihilation  of  the  wicked,  comes 
to  consider  "  what  is  to  be  regarded  as  the  truth  with 
respect  to  this  dogma,"  and  concludes  his  paper  thus; 

"  As  to  the  doctrine  of  the  apokatastasis,  of  the  restitu- 
tion of  all  who  are  separated  from  God  by  sin,  this  doc- 
trine is  grounded  in  faith  in  God's  unending  love.  If  this 
love  is  the  leading  thought  of  God's  creation,  the  source 
whence  all  has  flowed,  then  by  it  also  must  the  purpose 
be  determined  for  which  all  has  been  created.  God's  sov- 
ereignty is  no  other  than  the  sovereignty  of  his  love.  It 
must  one  day  rule  as  the  absolute  power.  It  is  not  to  be 
supposed  that  creatures  can  continue  to  hold  aloof  from  it 
and  refuse  to  come  under  its  sway.  If  God  is  unending 
love,  then  he  wills  the  salvation  of  all ;  if  he  is  all-power- 
ful love,  then  he  works  out  the  salvation  of  all.  This  can- 
not be  denied,  whatever  emphasis  may  be  placed  upon  his 
righteousness.  God's  love  is  a  righteous  love,  which  pun- 
ishes .sin  because  it  cannot  permit  sin  to  exist.  And  so 
an  expectation  of  a  gradual  and  progressive  growth  and 
development  of  all,  witlunit  exception,  is  much  more  in 
harmony  with  the  actual  condition  of  man,  and  conse- 
quently much  more  reasonable  than  the  thought  of  an 
irrevocable  decision  as  to  man's  lot  at  his  departure  from 


338  THE    UNIVEKSALISTS.  [Chap.  ii. 

the  earth.  But  with  the  expectation  of  the  apokatastnsis, 
all  punishment  in  the  future  is  not  thereby  canceled,  and 
free  play  thus  given  for  frivolity  and  indifference.  The 
truth  of  the  apostolic  saying  retains  its  full  force :  '  What 
a  man  sows  that  shall  he  also  reap.'  But  that  does  not 
infer  that  the  punishment  shall  have  no  end  to  all  eternity, 
that  there  can  never  be  the  smallest  place  for  change  and 
restitution.  This  comfortless  thought  cannot  be  cherished 
as  the  truth.  With  man's  nature,  with  the  purpose  of 
punishment,  above  all,  with  the  unbounded  love  of  God, 
which  admits  of  no  everlasting  division  between  a  king- 
dom of  light  and  a  kingdom  of  darkness,  the  expectation 
of  an  apokatastasis  is  alone  in  harmony — a  final  restitution 
which  shall  be  accomplished  in  the  end  of  the  ages."^ 

In  Switzerland  Universalism  found  an  able  advocate  in 
the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  in  Marie  Huber. 
She  was  a  somewhat  voluminous  writer  of  original  themes, 
as  well  as  a  translator  into  French  of  publications  in  other 
languages.  Her  book  on  "  The  State  of  Souls  Separated 
from  their  Bodies"  is  an  argument  for  Universalism.  It 
first  appeared  in  1736. 

Somewhere  about  1 760  Ferdinand  Oliver  Petitpierre,  a 
native  of  the  Canton  of  Neufchatel,  was  pastor  at  a  village 
in  the  same  canton,  and  made  himself  obnoxious  to  his 
church  and  to  his  brother-clergymen  by  preaching  Uni- 
versalism. The  canton  being  at  this  time  under  the  sov- 
ereignty of  the  King  of  Prussia,  Frederick  the  Great  was 
appealed  to  by  the  church  to  remove  their  pastor.  Resist- 
ance and  delay  on  the  part  of  the  king  brought  on  a  con- 
test in  regard  to  ecclesiastical  privilege,  in  which  the  church 
and  clergy  were  victorious,  and  the  king,  in  submitting  to 
defeat,  sarcastically  informed  them  that  "  since  they  were 

1  Translated  from  "  Geloof  en  Vrijheid,"  1893,  1st  ail.,  ia  "  The  Thinker," 
New  York,  July,  1893,  pp.  71  ff. 


rKTiTriERRE—ci'rrE.  •  339 

so  resolutely  bent  on  beinjr  eternally  damned  he  should  no 
loni,''cr  oppose  their  determination."  '  Retirini^"  to  London, 
Petitpierre  engaged  in  business,  and  having  in  a  few  years 
obtained  what  he  thought  would  suffice  for  his  necessities 
the  rest  of  his  days,  he  was  able  to  say:  "  I  will  now  em- 
ploy the  hapin'  leisure  which  God's  goodness  affords  me 
in  the  preparation  of  this  work  upon  the  plan  of  God,  that 
I  may  do  my  duty  in  this  respect  in  the  only  way  that  is 
now  left  me,  and  finish  my  career  in  this  world  as  I  began 
it,  maintaining  the  Word  of  the  Lord."  He  contemplated 
a  treatise  in  four  parts,  on  "  The  Plan  of  God  toward  Men, 
as  lie  has  Manifested  it  in  Nature  and  Grace,"  Only  the 
first  part,  "  Thoughts  on  the  ]Ji\ine  Goodness,  Relative  to 
the  Government  of  Moral  Agents,  Particularly  Displayed  in 
Future  Rewards  and  Punishments,"  was  published.  This 
first  appeared  in  h'rench  at  Amsterdam  in  1786.  An  Eng- 
lish edition  followed  in  1788.  Beginning  in  1794,  five 
editions  have  beeti  published  in  yVmerica. 

In  France,  Pierre  Cuppe,  curate  of  Boin,  published  in 
PVench  at  London,  1743,  a  book  entitled  "  Heaven  Open 
to  All  Men ;  or,  A  Theological  Treatise,  in  which,  without 
Disturbing  the  Practice  of  Religion,  it  is  Solidly  Proved  by 
Scripture  and  Reason  that  All  Men  shall  be  Saved."  The 
author  was  a  priest  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  notwith- 
standing that  church  has  for  twelve  centuries  hurled  its 
anathemas  against  Univer.salism  and  its  advocates,  this 
priest  puts  forth  a  clever  work  in  defense  of  the  salvation 
of  all  souls.  His  concluding  words  are :  "  In  fine,  this 
hypothesis  yields  a  wonderful  facility  to  explicate  readily 
an  infinite  number  of  places  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and 
ought  to  be  one  great  consolation,  by  the  hopes  it  enables 
us  to  cherish  that  God  will  separate  us  from  our  old  man, 
in  order  to  place  us  in  his  kingdom,  where,  without  except- 

'  Williams's  "  Tmir  in  Switzerland,"  vol.  ii.,  p.   148. 


340  •  THE    UNIVERSALISrS.  [Chap.  ii. 

ing  a  single  man,  *  he  shall,'  as  St.  Paul  says,  '  be  all  in 
all.'" 

Protestantism,  it  is  well  known,  had  great  difficulty  in  get- 
ting a  foothold  in  France.  In  1559,  at  their  first  national 
synod,  held  in  Paris,  they  adopted  a  confession,  a  cate- 
chism, and  an  order  of  worship,  which  had  been  prepared  by 
Calvin.  Until  1598  the  nation  was  in  constant  turmoil  and 
war,  the  parties  being  the  Romanists  and  the  Protestants, 
or,  as  the  latter  were  designated,  the  Huguenots.  When 
Henry  IV.  became  king  he  deserted  the  Protestant  party, 
and  from  political  motives  openly  professed  the  faith  of 
Rome.  By  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  which  he  issued  in  1598, 
he  secured,  however,  to  his  former  associates,  then  num- 
bering more  than  seven  hundred  and  fifty  congregations 
throughout  the  kingdom,  a  legal  existence,  allowing  them 
to  establish  public  worship,  making  them  eligible  to  all 
places  of  trust,  giving  them  equal  privileges  in  the  schools 
and  universities,  and  allowing  from  the  public  funds  forty 
thousand  crowns  annually  for  the  payment  of  their  clergy. 
Under  this  edict  they  flourished  greatly,  substantially 
united  on  their  Calvinistic  basis,  for  nearly  a  centur}-,  or 
until  its  revocation  in  1685.  No  exercise  of  the  Protestant 
religion  was  now  tolerated  in  France,  and  all  its  ministers 
were  commanded  to  leave  the  kingdom  within  a  fortnight. 
For  more  than  a  hundred  years  Protestants  in  France 
had  no  civil  rights.  In  1787  Louis  XVI.,  yielding  to  the 
force  of  public  opinion,  published  an  Edict  of  Toleration, 
authorizing  the  registry  of  Protestant  births,  marriages,  and 
deaths,  and  forbidding  that  they  should  in  any  way  be  dis- 
turbed because  of  their  faith ;  but  declaring  also  that  "  the 
Catholic,  Apostolic,  and  Roman  religion  alone  shall  con- 
tinue to  enjoy  public  worship." 

Toward  the  close  of  the  French  Revolution,  when  under 
the  consulship  of  Napoleon  Christian   worship  was  rees- 


FRA  NCR— SCO  TLA  ND.  3  4 1 

tablished,  a  law  was  enacted  which,  from  the  month  of  its 
date,  was  called  the  Law  of  Germinal,  securing  full  liberty 
to  the  Protestants,  regulating  their  ecclesiastical  organiza- 
tion, and  providing  for  an  annual  endowment  or  appro- 
priation for  the  sujjport  of  their  ministers.  The  Calvinistic 
creed  was  ignored,  the  national  synod  was  not  preserved  by 
law,  and  consequently  there  was  no  official  or  authoritative 
creed  to  be  subscribed  as  the  condition  of  being  regarded 
orthodox.  A  national  synod  was  held,  however,  in  1872, 
being  the  first  to  convene  since  1659,  at  which,  by  a  vote 
of  sixty-one  against  forty-five,  a  short  confession  was 
adopted,  and  its  subscription  made  obligatory  on  all  young 
pastors.  The  minority  withdrew,  and  the  Protestants  of 
France  are  not  yet  united  on  a  credal  basis. 

For  a  considerable  time  Univcrsalism  has  prevailed  quite 
extensi\'ely  in  France.  The  elder  Coquerel,  for  nearly 
forty  years  pastor  of  the  Oratoire  Church  in  Paris,  and  his 
son,  also  a  Protestant  preacher,  were  its  ardent  advocates. 
Many  were  in  sympathy  with  them  and  they  have  many 
successors,  freedom  of  opinion  being  favorable  to  its  pro- 
mulgation.- It  is  estimated  that  at  least  a  third  of  the 
Protestants  in  France  are  believers  in  Universalism. 

Tiie  first  preacher  of  Universalism  in  Scotland  was  Rev. 
James  Purves,  who  took  charge.of  a  congregation  in  Edin- 
burgh in  I  771.  Rev.  Niel  Douglass  became  a  Universal- 
ist  in  1 801,  and  began  preaching  his  new  faith  in  Greenock 
and  subsequently  in  Glasgow.  William  Worrall  was  his 
assistant  and  on  Mr.  Douglass'  death  in  1823  became  his 
successor,  being  followed  in  1828  by  Mr.  Edmunds.  Mr. 
Worrall  al.so  published  a  Universalist  periodical.  Societies 
were  also  organized  in  Johnstone,  Paisley,  Ayr,  and  Fal- 
kirk. T.  South  wood  Smith,  M.D.,  was  pastor  of  a  Unita- 
rian church  at  Yeovil  from  1816  to  1820.  He  wrote  a  vol- 
ume entitled  "  Illustrations  of  the  Divine  Government,"  first 


342  THE    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  ii. 

published  in  Glasgow  in  1816,  and  many  times  reprinted 
in  England  and  America;  a  very  able  defense  of  Uni- 
versalism.  He  afterward  became  a  physician  in  London, 
and  died  at  Florence,  in  1861.  The  monument  erected  to 
his  memory  sets  forth  that  he  was  the  pioneer  of  sanitary 
improvements.  Such  of  the  early  Universalist  societies  as 
now  survive  bear  the  Unitarian  name,  Universalism  being, 
in  Europe  a  confessed  doctrine  in  the  Unitarian  churches. 
But  two  churches  in  Scotland  now  bear  the  Universalist 
name,  one  at  Glasgow  and  one  at  Larbert.  The  former  is 
a  mission  church,  supported  by  the  Universalist  Woman's 
Centenary  Association  of  the  United  States. 

Agitation  and  controversy  on  the  subject  of  Universal- 
ism were  manifest  in  England  very  early  in  the  eighteenth 
century.  In  1 709  William  Whiston,  the  translator  of  Jose- 
phus,  while  professor  of  mathematics  as  successor  to  Sir 
Isaac  Newton,  in  Cambridge,  wrote  and  published  an  essay 
entitled  "  Reason  and  Philosophy  no  Enemies  to  health," 
in  which  he  made  war  against  the  dogma  of  the  endless 
punishment  of  sinners.  Ten  years  later  he  issued  another 
work  on  the  same  subject,  and  a  much  larger  volume  in 
I  740.  While,  however,  he  was  not  an  annihilationist,  his 
views  of  destiny  were  more  in  the  nature  of  a  hope  than 
an  assurance  of  Universali.^m.  In  his  "  Memoirs  of  Rev. 
Dr.  Samuel  Clarke,"  Whiston  says  of  his  work  in  former 
years  "  against  the  proper  eternity  of  the  torments  of 
hell  " :  "  And  I  think  I  may  \enture  to  add,  upon  the 
credit  of  what  I  discovered  of  the  opinions  of  Sir  Isaac 
Newton  and  Dr.  Clarke,  they  were  both  of  the  same  senti- 
ments. Na)',  Dr.  Clarke  thouglit  tliat  'few  or  no  thinking 
men  were  really  of  different  sentiments  in  that  matter.'  " 

Dr.  George  Cheync,  in  his  treatise  entitled  "  Philosophi- 
cal Principles  of  Natural  and  Revealed  Religion,"  an  edi- 
tion of  which  was  published  in  1715,  and  perhaps  earlier. 


THE   CHEVALIER  RAMSAY.  343 

asserted  his  belief  in  Universalism.  The  First  Cause,  he 
says,  "  infinitely  powerful  and  perfect,  must  necessarily 
subject,  draw,  and  unite  all  intelligent  beings  to  himself, 
to  make  them  as  happy  as  their  respective  natures  can 
admit."  He  is  the  sole  object  of  their  happiness,  and 
they  must  be  brought  to  him  to  enjoy  it.  "  This  happi- 
ness is  the  very  end  of  their  creation,  it  being  impossible 
infinite  perfection  should  make  intelligent  beings  for  any 
less  or  any  other  end." 

Andrew  Michael  Ramsay,  commonly  called  the  Cheva- 
lier, was  a  Roman  Catholic  Universalist.  In  the  "  Travels 
of  Cyrus,"  first  published  about  1720,  passing  in  ten  years 
through  four  editions,  he  teaches  that  God  "  drew  spirits 
out  of  nothing  to  make  them  happy;  and  he  punishes 
ihem  that  they  may  return  into  order."  In  a  later  work, 
bearing  the  same  title  as  Dr.  Cheyne's,  just  noticed,  he  fol- 
lows, as  to  the  question  of  destiny,  substantially  the  line 
of  argument  advanced  by  Dr.  Cheyne :  "  God's  design  in 
creating  finite  intelligences  could  only  be  to  make  them 
eternally  hap]))',  in  the  knowledge  and  love  of  his  bound- 
less perfections."  "  All  reasonable  agents  act  for  an  end. 
This  end  must  be  either  doing  good  to  themselves  or  to 
otiiers.  God's  design  in  creating  could  not  be  to  do  good 
to  himself,  and  therefore  it  must  be  to  do  good  to  others." 
"  Internal  Pro\'idence  desires,  wills,  and  employs  continu- 
ally all  the  means  necessary  to  lead  intelligent  creatures 
to  tluii-  ultimate  and  supreme  happiness."  "Almighty 
powt:r,  wisdom,  and  lo\-e  cannot  be  eternally  frustrated 
in  his  absolute  and  ultimate  designs:  therefore,  God  will 
at  last  pardon  and  reestablish  in  happiness  all  lapsed 
beings." 

A  volume  entitled  "The  Tmj^erial  Standard  of  Messiah 
Triumphant,"  etc.,  by  R.  Roach,  H.D.,  <ip])eare(l  in  1722 
or  1723.      Ihe  author  believed   in   the  immediate  second 


344  ^'^^^    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  ii. 

coming  of  Christ.  He  was  a  mystic,  and  was  familiar  with 
the  writings  of  Petersen,  Jane  Lead,  and  others.  With 
most  of  the  mystical  school  he  was  a  believer  in  Univer- 
salism,  which  he  advocates  boldly  in  this  book  and  answers 
fully  the  common  objections  urged  against  it.  In  a  chap- 
ter entitled  "  The  General  Act  of  Grace,"  he  represents 
Christ,  now  about  to  assume  his  kingdom,  as  saying: 

"  I  have  now,  in  the  appointed  time,  given  full  commis- 
sion to  the  Angel- Herald  to  proclaim  the  Everlasting  Gos- 
pel to  all  peoples,  nations,  tongues,  and  languages,  reveal- 
ing the  unchangeable  nature  of  God  as  pure  and  perfect 
love,  and  manifesting  his  secret  purpose  and  decree,  re- 
served as  tlie  peculiar  glory  of  the  latter  day  and  dispen- 
sation of  grace  in  its  full  and  utmost  latitude:  to  wit,  of 
restoring  at  last  the  whole  lapsed  creation :  the  glad  tid- 
ings whereof  are  now  sounded  by  the  angel  flying  in  the 
midst  of  heaven,  not  only  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  but 
even  into  the  deep,  to  be  heard  by  those  of  his  own  order 
there;  as  also  by  all  souls  in  their  various  regions  of  con- 
finement and  suffering.  For  I  am  love,  and  cannot  bear 
to  see  any  of  my  creatures  miserable  to  all  eternity." 

In  1738  not  a  little  stir  was  made  in  the  theological 
world  by  the  publication  of  a  work  bearing  on  our  general 
subject,  from  the  pen  of  one  of  the  most  eminent  of  the 
bishops  of  the  Established  Church,  "The  Divine  Lega- 
tion of  Moses,"  by  William  Warburton,  D.D.,  Bishop  of 
Gloucester.  The  argument  of  the  work  was  this :  "  The 
Deists  said  that  the  Jewish  religion  could  lay  no  claim  to 
divinity  because  its  sacred  books  said  nothing  respecting 
a  future  state  of  rewards  and  punislnnents ;  but  for  that 
very  reason,"  Warburton  replied,  "  must  it  be  divined, 
since  it  did  really  accomplish  the  ])unishment  of  wrong- 
doers without  such  a  doctrine,  and  no  other  legislation 
had   been  able  to  do  so  without  it."      In  answer  to  the 


U'AKJIUR'JVX'S  DIVINE   LEGATION.  345 

question,  How  could  it  do  this?  he  repHed :  "  Because  the 
foundation  and  support  of  the  Mosaic  legislation  was  the 
theocracy  which  was  peculiar  to  the  Jews,  and  which  dealt 
out  in  this  life  righteous  rewards  and  punishments  upon 
individual  and  nation.  An  extraordinary  providence  con- 
ducted the  affairs  of  tiiis  people,  and  consequently  the 
sending  of  Moses  was  divinely  ordered."  ^  Taking  up  the 
objection  urged  against  his  theory  by  some,  that  hell  is 
more  often  mentioned  in  the  Old  Testament  than  the 
New,  he  makes  a  statement  which  sounds  like  an  avowal 
of  belief  in  Universalism  : 

"  I  shall  choose,"  he  said,  "  rather  to  consider  what  is 
to  be  understood  by  the  word,  than  how  often  it  is  used. 
Now  I  suppose  neither  I  nor  my  answerers  can  have  any 
reasonable  objcclifMi  to  St.  Jolm's  authority  in  this  mat- 
ter; who,  .speaking  in  the  l^ook  of  Revelation  of  the  use- 
less old  furniture  of  the  Lav\-,  says,  '  And  death  and  hell 
were  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire;  this  is  the  second  death.' 
(Rev.  XX.  14.)  From  hence  it  appears  that  the  hell  of  the 
Old  Testament  was  a  very  diflferent  thing  from  the  hell  of 
the  New,  called  the  lake  of  Hre ;  since  the  one  is  made  the 
punishment,  or  at  least  the  extinction,  of  the  other.  And 
to  remove  all  doubt  the  apostle,  we  see,  calls  this  casting 
into  the  lake  a  second  death.  ]\Iust  not  then  the  lake 
itself  be  a  second  hell?  And  if  so,  could  the  first,  or  the 
Old  Testament,  hell  be  any  other  than  the  grave?  The 
next  words  tell  us  that  '  whosoever  was  not  found  written 
in  the  book  of  life  was  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire.'  (Verse 
15.)  So  that  the  sense  of  the  whole  seems  to  be  this,  that 
at  the  consummation  of  things  (the  subject  here  treated 
of),  all  physical  and  moral  evil  shall  be  abolished. "- 

In  the  good  bishop's  Commentary  on   Pope's  "  Essay 

1   Christlicl)'s  "Analysis   '  in  ScliafT-1  Itr/og  Kncydop;xHlia,  vol.  iii.,  p.  480. 
-  "Works,"  London  edition,  iSii,  vol.  v.,  p.  407. 


346  THE    UNI  VERSA  LISTS.  •  [Chap.  ii. 

on  Man,"  he  finds  many  sentiments  congenial  to  his  own 
opinions : 

"  Entering  upon  his  argument,  he  (Pope)  lays  down  this 
self-evident  proposition  as  the  foundation  of  his  thesis, 
which  he  reasonably  supposes  will  be  allowed  him  :  that 
of  all  possibles  systems,  infinite  wisdom  hath  formed  the 
best."  "Though  the  system  of  the  best  supposes  that 
the  evils  themselves  will  be  fully  compensated  by  the 
good  they  produce  to  the  whole,  yet  this  is  so  far  from 
supposing  that  particulars  shall  suffer  for  a  general  good, 
that  it  is  essential  to  this  system  to  conclude  that  at  the 
completion  of  things,  when  the  whole  is  arrived  to  the 
state  of  utmost  perfection,  particular  and  universal  good 
shall  coincide.  To  return  theii  to  the  poet's  argument, 
he,  as  we  said,  bids  man  comfort  himself  with  expectation 
of  future  happiness,  and  shows  him  that  this  hope  is  an 
earnest  of  it.  But  first  of  all  he  puts  in  one  very  neces- 
sary caution, 

'  Hope  humbly  then,  \\  ith  treniblinij  pinions  soar.' 

And  provoked  at  those  miscreants,  whom  he  afterward 
(Ep.  iii.,  1.  262)  describes  as  building  'hell  on  spite  and 
heaven  on  pride,'  he  upbraids  them  (1.  94  to  109)  with 
the  example  of  the  poor  Indian,  to  whom  also  nature 
hath  given  this  common  hope  of  mankind.  But  though 
his  untutored  mind  had  betrayed  him  into  many  childish 
fancies  concerning  the  nature  of  that  future  state,  )-et  he 
is  so  far  from  excluding  any  part  of  his  own  species  (a 
vice  which  could  proceed  only  from  vain  science,  which 
puffeth  up)  that  he  admits  even  his  faithful  dog  to  bear 
him  company."' 

In  T  744  the  "  Harleian  Miscellany,"  a  collection  of  scarce, 

1  "  ^Yorks,"  London  cditinn,   iSii,  \ol.  xi.,  p[).  2(),  29  f. 


'•  H ARIEL  IN  miscellany:'  347 

curious,  and  entcrtaininL;-  pamphlets  and  tracts,  as  well 
in  nuuuiscript  as  in  print,  found  in  the  Earl  of  Oxford's 
library  after  his  decease,  was  published,  making  several 
large  quarto  volumes.  In  vol.  xi.  is  a  tract  entitled 
"Natural  and  Revealed  Religion  Explaining  Each  Other," 
etc.  Tile  author  is  unknown,  as  is  also  the  date  of  its 
composition.  It  has  been  conjectured,  from  the  position 
it  occupies  among  other  tracts,  that  it  was  written  not 
later  than  1694.  Certainly  it  was  not  made  public  until 
the  volume  containing  it  was  printed  in  the  year  first 
given.  The  second  part,  on  "  The  State  of  Souls  after 
Death,  as  Discovered  by  Revelation,"  is  an  unambiguous 
presentation  of  Universalism,  as  note  the  following  para- 
graph : 

"  Now,  when  Christ  hath  delivered  up  his  kingdom  to 
his  Father,  then  God  is  said  to  be  '  all  in  all.'  Now  these 
words  could  have  no  sense  if  hell  tt)rments  were  eternal. 
God  can  never  be  '  all  in  all  '  but  by  restoring  the  order 
of  things.  Indeed,  these  words  are  an  irrefragable  argu- 
ment for  the  abolition  of  sin  and  hell,  and  the  restora- 
tion of  all  the  creatures;  which  is  further  confirmed  by 
St.  Paul's  exclamation,  '  O  death,  where  is  thy  sting? 
O  grave,  where  is  thy  victory?'  Now  if  death  and  the 
grave  have  no  other  sting  but  sin,  and  this  sting  mu.st  be 
destroyed,  does  it  not  follow  that  hell  must  be  destroyed 
also?  Since  'tis  certain  if  sin  were  killed  in  men  there 
would  be  no  hell.'' 

Rev.  Dr.  Samuel  Tarr,  born  in  1747,  was  an  eminent 
clergyman  in  the  Church  of  ICngland,  and  "  in  curious  and 
elegant  classical  knowledge  seemed  to  have  been  at  the 
head  of  the  English  scholars  of  his  day."  h>om  his  biog- 
rapher. Rev.  William  Field,  we  learn  that  "  he  believed 
that  on  the  part  of  the  great  Creator  no  disposition  to  be 
reconciled  to  the  truly  penitent  was  wanting;  that  he  was 


348  THE    UNI  VERSA  LISTS.  [Chap.  ii. 

placable  in  his  own  nature;  and  that  it  was  the  end  of  the 
Christian  scheme,  and  especially  of  the  death  of  its  great 
Author,  to  reconcile  men  to  God,  to  lead  them  to  repent- 
ance and  reformation.  With  regard  to  the  future  life,  he 
believed  that  there  were  different  degrees  of  future  rewards 
and  punishments,  proportioned  to  the  merits  or  demerits 
of  every  individual ;  and  he  agreed  with  Bishop  Newton, 
Dr.  Hartley,  and  many  others,  that  future  punishments  are 
corrective ;  intended  to  produce  moral  reformation  in  the 
sufferer,  and  to  prepare,  ultimately,  for  the  gradual  attain- 
ment of  greater  or  less  degrees  of  happiness."^ 

Dr.  Samuel  Hartley,  referred  to  in  the  foregoing  quo- 
tation, was  a  physician,  "  equally  and  in  the  first  degree 
eminent  for  skill,  integrity,  and  charitable  compassion." 
He  published,  in  1 749,  "  Observations  on  Man,  His  Frame, 
His  Duty,  and  His  Expectations."  In  it  he  devotes  a 
section  to  an  argument  for  "  The  Final  Happiness  of  all 
Mankind  in  Some  Distant  Future  State."  This  result  he 
shows  to  be  probable,  in  seven  significant  arguments  from 
reason  and  by  a  mass  of  testimony  in  the  Scriptures. 

Rev.  James  Relly,  born  at  Jefferson,  North  Wales,  in 
1 720,  was  for  a  short  time  a  preacher  in  Whitefield's  com- 
munion, but  in  1750  he  became  a  Universalist,  and  soon 
organized  a  society  of  believers  in  London,  to  whom  he 
ministered  until  his  death,  about  thirty  years  later.  His 
theology  was  peculiar,  and  will  be  described  at  length  when 
we  come  to  notice  his  most  famous  disciple,  the  pioneer 
of  organized  Universalism  in  America,  Rev.  John  Murray. 
He  published  nine  small  works,  some  of  them  being  mere 
tracts,  in  exposition  and  defense  of  his  theology.  It  is 
doubtful  if  his  society  ever  owned  a  church  edifice.  It 
assembled  in  halls,  and  last  in  a  leased  chapel.  After 
Mr.  Relly's  death  the  society  was  ministered  to  by  lay- 

1  "  Cliristi.in  Kxaiiiiner,"  vol.  v.,  p.  463.. 


REV.    WILLIAM  LAW.  349 

men.     This  continued  to  be  their  custom  until  1830,  when, 
the  lease  of  their  chapel  having  expired,  they  disbanded. 

Rev.  William  Law,  the  renowned  author  of  "  A  Serious 
Call,"  "  The  Spirit  of  Love,"  and  numerous  doctrinal  and 
practical  books,  was  a  mystic,  a  great  admirer  of  the  writ- 
ings of  Jacob  Boehm.  His  "  Spirit  of  Love  "  was  first 
printed  in  1752,  and  has  passed  through  many  editions. 
Much  of  it  is  misty  and  difficult  to  understand,  but  in 
places  its  Universalism  is  plainly  avowed. 

"  To  know,"  he  says,  "  that  Love  alone  was  the  begin- 
ning of  nature  and  creature,  that  nothing  but  Love  en- 
compasses the  whole  universe  of  things,  that  the  governing 
hand  that  overrules  all,  the  watchful  eye  that  sees  through 
all,  is  nothing  but  omnipotent  and  omniscient  Love,  using 
an  infinity  of  wisdom  to  rai.se  all  that  is  fallen  in  nature,  to 
save  every  misguided  creature  from  the  miserable  works 
of  its  own  hands,  and  make  happiness  and  glory  the  per- 
petual inheritance  of  all  the  creation,  is  a  reflection  tliat 
must  be  quite  ravishing  to  every  intelligent  creature  that 
is  sensible  of  it."  "  It  was  Love  alone  that  wanted  to  have 
full  satisfaction  done  to  it,  and  such  a  Love  as  could  not 
be  .satisfied  till  all  that  glory  and  happiness  that  was  lost 
by  the  death  of  Adam  was  fully  restored  and  regained 
again  by  the  death  of  Christ."  "That  sui)ernatural  Love 
and  Wisdom  which  brought  it  forth  presides  over  it  and 
will  direct  it,  till  Christ,  as  a  second  Adam,  has  removed 
and  extinguished  all  thai  evil  wliich  the  first  Adam  brought 
into  the  human  nature."  "He  [Christ]  has  a  power  of 
redeeming  us  which  nothing  can  liinder ;  but  sooner  or  later 
he  must  see  all  his  and  our  enemies  under  his  feet,  and  all 
that  is  fallen  in  Adam  into  death  must  rise  and  return  into 
a  unity  of  an  eternal  life  in  God."  •  "  In  how  many  ways," 
he  says  in  a  letter  to  a  friend,  "  have  I  proved  and  asserted 

1   London  edition,  1754,  part  ii.,  pp.   il,  100,  119,  236. 


350  THE    UNIVEKSALISTS.  [Chap.  ii. 

that  there  neither  is  nor  can  be  any  wrath  or  partiality  in 
God ;  but  that  every  creature  must  have  all  that  happiness 
which  the  infinite  Love  and  power  of  God  can  help  it  to." 
"  It  is  my  capital  doctrine  that  God  is  all  Love ;  that  he 
must  eternally  will  that  to  the  creature  which  he  willed 
at  his  creation."  "  As  for  the  purification  of  all  human 
nature,  I  fully  believe  it,  either  in  this  world  or  some 
after  ages."  ^ 

Thomas  Newton,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Bristol  in  1761,  be- 
lieved in  Universalism  on  the  ground  of  the  freedom  of 
will  and  action  extending  into  the  future  and  the  improb- 
ability of  a  sinner's  holding  out  forever  against  repenting. 
The  opinion  that  the  future  state  of  man  is  fixed  and  unal- 
terable is,  he  says,  "  without  any  real  foundation  in  Script- 
ure, or  in  the  nature  and  reason  of  things.  To  suppose 
that  a  man's  happiness  or  misery  to  all  eternity  should  be 
absolutely  and  unchangeably  fixed  and  determined  by  the 
uncertain  behavior  of  a  few  years  in  this  life  is  a  suppo- 
sition even  more  unreasonable  and  unnatural  than  that  a 
man's  mind  and  manners  should  be  completely  formed  and 
fashioned  in  his  cradle,  and  that  his  whole  future  fortune 
and  condition  should  depend  altogether  on  his  infancy ; 
infancy  being  much  greater  in  proportion  to  the  few  years 
of  this  life  than  the  whole  of  this  life  is  to  eternity."  "  No 
creature  can  be  so  totally  depraved  and  abandoned  as  to 
hold  out,  under  the  most  exquisite  tortures,  obstinate  and 
obdurate  unto  all  eternity.  Some  may  persist  for  a  longer, 
some  for  a  shorter,  term  ;  but  in  the  end  all  must  be  sub- 
dued, so  that  their  punishment  may  more  properly  be  called 
indefinite  than  infinite.  "- 

In  I  76 1  Sir  George  Stonehouse  published  the  first  of 
several  works  from   his  pen,  in  advocacy  of  Universalism. 

1  "  Collection  of  Letters,"  London,  1762,  letter  xii.,  pp.   172-175. 

2  "  Works,"  London,  1782,  "  Last  Dissertation,"  vol.  iii. 


A7/v'    CEORGE   srONKIIOUSE.  351 

It  was  entitled  "  Universal  Restitution  a  Scripture  Doc- 
trine," etc.  The  author  was  educated  at  Oxford,  and 
while  there  was  a  member  of  a  society  called,  in  deri- 
sion, the  "  Holy  Club."  John  and  Charles  Wesley,  George 
Whitefield,  James  Hervey,  were  also  members.  Between 
the  years  1729  and  1735  the  doctrine  of  human  destiny 
was  debated  with  great  interest  by  them.  Whitefield  and 
Hervey  took  the  Calvinistic  view ;  John  and  Charles  Wes- 
ley, the  Arminian  ;  others  defended  the  Moravian  senti- 
ments ;  and  Stonehouse  stood  alone  in  defense  of  universal 
restitution.  He  demanded  fair  attention  to  his  arguments, 
and  was  told  that  if  he  would  write  out  his  thoughts  they 
should  receive  a  candid  answer.  Probably  this  led  to  his 
preparation  of  the  work  here  mentioned,  although  some 
years  elapsed  before  he  put  it  in  print.  Meeting  John 
Wesley  after  the  book  had  been  for  some  time  before  the 
public,  Mr.  Stonehouse  is  reported  to  have  said:  "Ah, 
John,  there  are  only  you  and  I  living  out  of  us  all."  To 
which  Wesley  replied:  "Better  that  you  had  died  too, 
George,  before  you  had  written  your  book."  Stonehouse 
responded:  "I  expected  you  had  eaten  my  book  at  a 
mouthful,  John;  but  neither  you,  nor  any  of  the  rest, 
though  you  all  engaged  to  do  it,  have  answered  a  single 
paragraph  of  it."  "  You  must  not  think  your  book  unan- 
swerable on  that  account,"  said  Wesley.  "  I  am  able  to 
answer  it,  but  it  would  take  up  so  much  of  my  time  that 
I  could  not  answer  it  to  God."  To  Sir  George  this  answer 
seemed  captious  and  evasive,  and  he  was  so  stung  by  it 
that  he  wrote  and  published  "  Universal  Restitution  Vin- 
dicated." 1  Another  volume  on  the  same  subject  came 
from  his  pen  as  late  as  1773.  His  linguistic  abilities  were 
remarkable,  as  he  qualified  himself,  it  is  said,  to  translate 

1   .See  paniplilet  "  I'rcexistcnce  of  Souls  .ind   Universal   Restitution  Con- 
sidered as  Scripture  Doctrines."  Taunton,   1 7q8. 


352  THE    UAirJiKSA LISTS.  [Chap.  ii. 

readily  any  passage  of  Holy  Writ  into  thirteen  different 
languages.  His  pages  overflow  with  Latin,  Greek,  Hebrew, 
Syriac,  or  Chaldee  references  and  quotations,  making  them 
difficult  to  read,  and  subjecting  him  to  the  charge  of  ped- 
antry. Like  Origen,  Stonehouse  held  to  the  doctrine  of 
the  preexistence  of  souls,  and  that  they  were  sent  into 
this  world,  with  Adam  as  their  head,  with  a  view  to  their 
recovery  from  sins  committed  elsewhere.  Those  who  here 
accept  Christ  experience  sah-ation.  Those  who  go  out  of 
this  world  neglecting  salvation  incur  all  the  penalties  of  sin, 
but,  crying  out  from  their  prison-liouse  and  being  peni- 
tent, are  forgiven  and  restored.  Salvation  belongs  only 
to  the  present  life;  restoration  only  to  the  future  state  of 
existence. 

In  1772  Capel  Berrow,  a  clergyman  of  the  Established 
Church,  published  a  volume  entitled  "  Theological  Disserta- 
tions," in  three  of  which  he  advocates  Unixersalism.  "  It 
shall  be  my  business  to  prove,"  he  said,  from  reason  and 
revelation,  "  that  by  the  infinite  mercy  of  God,  and  through 
the  merits  of  his  Son,  Jesus  Christ,  the  whole  creation  will 
be  brought,  at  last,  into  a  right  knowledge  of  the  Deity, 
and  an  uniform  obedience  to  his  will  and  pleasure ;  and 
that  the  souls  of  the  reprobate  will  by  degrees  be  so  puri- 
fied and  reformed  by  some  successive  fiery  trials  reserved 
for  them  in  an  after  state,  that  all  will,  in  the  end,  arrive 
at  that  state  and  degree  of  happiness  for  which  they  were 
at  first  created,  and  the  Creator  himself  be  freed  from  the 
supposed  necessity  of  sacrificing  to  his  justice  that  more 
amiable  attribute  of  his  nature,  mercy." 

William  Matthews,  a  Friend  or  Quaker,  published  in  i  786 
three  volumes,  entitled  "  Miscellaneous  Companions,"  in 
the  third  of  which  and  in  two  volumes  of  the  "  Recorder," 
published  a  few  years  later,  he  advocated  Universalism. 
In   the   preface   to   the   "  Miscellaneous   Companions "   he 


///■:.\7)/-:  K.SOX— II  vxc  'ri  ester.  353 

said :  "  I  am  now  cheered  uitli  tlie  rational,  Scriptural, 
and,  as  I  think,  i^loritnis  doctrine  of  the  inuiishment  of 
divine  justice  beini^  eventually  subserxient  to  an  universal 
purification  and  fitness  for  heavenl}-  habitations."  Sub- 
mitting his  "  Dissertation  on  Everlasting  Punishment  "  to 
John  Henderson,  a  famous  linguist  and  scholar,  the  latter 
appended  to  it  a  postscript,  the  conclusion  of  which  is  as 
follows  :  "  As,  then,  unceasing  torments  can  answer  no  pos- 
sible good  to  any  one  in  the  universe,  I  conclude  them  to 
be  neither  the  will  nor  the  work  of  God.  Could  I  sup- 
pose them,  I  must  belie\-e  them  to  be  inflicted  by  a  wan- 
tonness or  cruelty  which  words  cannot  express  nor  heart 
conceive.  But  let  this  be  the  comfort  of  every  humble 
soul,  that  known  unto  God  are  all  his  works — the  Judge 
of  all  shall  do  right,  and  he  ordereth  all  things  well.  It 
hath  pleased  him  to  reconcile  all  things  to  himself.  There- 
fore, to  him  shall  every  knee  bow,  and  every  tongue 
shall  say,  Mn  the  Lord  I  have  strength,  and  I  have  right- 
eousness.' 

In  September,  i  >87,  Re\-.  Elhanan  Winchester — of  whose 
conversion  to  Universalism  we  shall  speak  in  the  American 
portion  of  this  work — arrived,  from  America,  in  London. 
Almost  unknown  and  unheralded,  although  he  bore  letters 
of  commendation,  he  began,  under  many  difficulties,  the 
building  up  of  a  Universalist  congregation.  A  series  of 
"Lectures  on  the  Prophecies  that  Remain  to  be  Fulfilled," 
extending  through  the  years  i  788-90,  attracted  attention, 
and  before  their  close  his  congregation  so  increased  that 
they  found  a  comfortable  home  in  the  Chapel  in  Parlia- 
ment Court.  The  influence  exerted  by  means  of  his  pub- 
lications was,  however,  greater  than  that  of  his  preaching. 
In  I  788  he  printed  his  "  Dialogues  on  Universal  Restora- 
tion," by  far  his  most  \aluable  production.  Both  the 
"  Monthly   Review  "  and   the  "  C'itical   Review  "  gave  it 


354  ^^^^    [WfJ^EKSA LISTS.  [Chap.  ii. 

hearty  commendation.  Subsequently  he  pubHshed  other 
books  and  numerous  tracts  and  pamphlets,  and  for  two 
years  conducted  a  Universalist  periodical,  the  "  Philadel- 
phian  Magazine."  In  addition  to  all  these  labors  he  made 
many  excursions  as  an  itinerant,  preaching  in  many  places 
to  large  assemblies,  but  not  attempting  to  establish  soci- 
eties, feeling  that  union  rather  than  division  was  desirable. 
His  policy  was  a  mistaken  one,  and  for  lack  of  organiza- 
tion much  of  his  work  was  ephemeral.  His  acquaintance 
with  dissenting  ministers  became  extensive,  and  not  a  few 
of  them  announced  their  conversion  to  the  faith  which  he 
preached.^ 

In  1794  Mr.  Winchester  returned  to  America  and  was 
succeeded  at  the, Parliament  Court  Chapel  by  Rev.  William 
Vidler,  who  had  been  a  Baptist  preacher,  but  was  con- 
verted to  Universalism  by  the  reading  of  Mr.  Winchester's 
publications.  In  addition  to  his  labors  as  a  preacher  Mr. 
Vidler  began  in  1797  the  publication  of  "The  Universal- 
ist's  Miscellany,"  a  periodical  of  which,  with  slight  changes 
of  title,  thirteen  volumes  were  issued..  He  also  assisted 
Mr.  Nathaniel  Scarlett,  a  member  of  his  congregation,  in 
preparing  and  publishing  an  improved  translation  of  the 
New  Testament.  The  translation  was  principally  made,  it 
is  said,  by  Rev.  Mr.  Creighton,  a  clergyman  of  the  Church 
of  England.  Changing  his  views  with  regard  to  the  Trin- 
ity and  vicarious  atonement,  Mr.  Vidler  thus  caused  a  divi- 
sion in  his  society,  from  which  it  never  fully  recovered. 
On  his. death,  in  18 16,  he  was  succeeded  by  Rev.  William 
J.  Fox,  an  eminent  Unitarian,  at  one  time  the  most  elo- 
quent preacher  in  London ;  a  philanthropist,  and  finally  a 
member  of  Parliament.  The  society  is  still  in  existence, 
and,  like  all  the  Unitarian  societies  of  England,  holds  to 
the  doctrine  of  Universalism. 

1   See  Stone's  "  Life  of  Wincliester, "  chap.  xii. 


THE   "MOXTllI.y  KKJ-f/ClV 


355 


This  notice  of  Universalist  writers  and  preachers  in  the 
eighteenth  century  might  be  very  much  extended  by 
numerous  citations  covering  the  whole  period;  but  the 
foregoing  will  suffice  to  show  the  activity  of  thinkers  on 
this  important  question,  and  the  varied  methods  in  which 
the  one  result  has  been  reached  and  the  different  theories 
on  \\hich  it  was  based.  But  with  the  mention  of  one 
very  significant  circumstance — the  manner  in  which  Uni- 
versalism  was  treated  by  the  conductors  of  eminent  liter- 
ary re\-iews — we  pass  on  to  another  period  in  its  history. 

In  May,  i  749,  Mr.  Ralph  Grififiths,  afterward  Dr.  Grif- 
fiths, established  in  London  the  "  Monthly  Review,"  and 
retained  its  chief  direction  more  than  fifty  years,  when,  at 
his  death,  it  passed  into  the  hands  of  his  son  and  was  under 
his  management  until  1845,  when  it  w^as  discontinued. 
It  was  exclusively  a  book  review,  and  in  its  nearly  two 
hundred  and  fifty  volumes  may  be  found  many  scores  of 
notices  of  books  in  defense  of,  and  also  books  antagonistic 
to,  Universalism.  The  favor  of  the  reviewer  is  uniformly 
manifest  toward  the  former.  His  treatment  of  the  latter  is 
as  uniformly  antagonistic,  the  i)ositions  being  ably  assailed 
on  grounds  of  Scripture,  reason,  and  moral  sense.  There 
is  evidently  great  delight  in  noticing  an  argument  in  favor 
of  Universalism.  A  generally  full  analysis  or  summary 
and  copious  extracts  are  frequently  introduced,  and  there 
can  be  no  mistaking  the  hearty  sympathy  of  the  reviewer 
with  the  doctrine  and  with  arguments  in  its  favor.  As  a 
specimen  note  the  following  from  a  notice  of  a  Univer- 
salist pamphlet,  in  1754:  The  author  "  endeavors  to  show 
that  the  notion  of  the  endless  duration  of  sinners  in  a  state 
of  torment  is  not  only  unscriptural,  but  likewise  highly 
absurd,  being  contrary  to  all  our  best  notions  of  the  Deity, 
as  a  Being  of  infinite  justice  and  benignity.  He  observes, 
too,  and  we  think  justly,  that  the  repeated  attempts  of 


356  THE    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  ii. 

many  pious  and  well-meaning  persons  to  represent  this 
absurdity  as  a  Scriptural  doctrine  has  contributed  not  a 
little  to  the  growth  of  infidelity  among  the  rational  part 
of  mankind." 

In  noticing,  in  1817,  a  volume  of  sermons  favoring  the 
annihilation  of  the  wicked,  which  the  reviewer  antagonized, 
he  is  led  to  say  of  the  doctrine  of  the  eternity  of  future 
punishment:  "We  have  often  expressed  our  notions  of 
that  doctrine  as  derogatory  to  the  goodness  of  the  Deity, 
and  as  tending  to  alienate  many  from  the  interests  of 
revealed  truth  ;  for  who  that  seriously  contemplates  the 
perfections  of  God  and  the  infirmities  of  man  can  bring 
himself  to  believe  that  the  great  and  good  Father  of  the 
world  would  subject  his  frail  and  erring  creatures  to  inter- 
minable misery  for  the  finite  transgressions  of  a  {q\n  fugi- 
tive years?  He  who  would  wish  to  traduce  the  character 
of  the  Divine  Goodness  could  not  do  it  with  more  efifect 
than  by  representing  it. as  agreeable  to  that  Goodness  to 
condemn  any  of  his  creatures  to  a  state  of  endless  woe." 

The  above  are  fair  specimens  of  the  criticisms  which 
characterized  this  popular  and  long-lived  review  during 
the  entire  term  of  its  publication. 

In  I  756,  seven  years  after  the  first  issue  of  the  "  Monthly 
Review,"  the  "  Critical  Review  "  was  started  in  opposition 
to  the  former,  under  the  direction  of  Tobias  Smollett,  M.D., 
the  English  historian.  The  one  was  regarded  as  the  organ 
of  the  High  Church  and  the  other  as  the  organ  of  the  Low 
Church,  and  their  antagonisms  on  several  points  were  con- 
stant and  sharp.  But  the  "  Critical  Review  "  was  as  favor- 
able to  Universalism  and  as  hostile  to  the  dogma  of  unend- 
ing punishment  as  it  seemed  possible  for  the  "  Monthly 
Review  "  to  be.  These. were  prominent  features  in  its  book 
notices  for  nearly  half  a  century.  In  a  notice  of  [Stone- 
house's]  "  Universal  Restitution  a  Scripture  Doctrine,"  etc.. 


THE   "CRITICAL   REVIEW:'  357 

the  reviewer  begins  his  notice  by  saying":  "The  author 
of  the  work  before  us  has  with  great  genius  and  learning 
refuted  the  strongest  objection  that  e\er  was  made  against 
the  truth  of  Christianity.  The  doctrine  of  the  eternity  of 
hell  torments  is  altogether  irreconcilable  with  the  idea  of  a 
benevolent  Creator."  And  he  closes  his  review  with  this 
encomium  of  the  author  and  his  work  :  "  The  learning  and 
accuracy  with  which  the  author  has  proved  a  point  that 
reflects  the  highest  honor  upon  the  Christian  religion 
merits  the  applause  of  those  who  are  sincerely  attached 
to  it ;  and  we  doubt  not  but  his  performance  will  from  all 
such  meet  with  a  fa\orable  reception." 

The  number,  bulk,  comprehensiveness,  and  ability  of 
the  books  in  favor  of  Uni\-ersalism  which  came  under  the 
notice  of  these  two  Reviews,  and  the  uniform  attitude  of 
the  reviewers  in  their  favor,  are  an  unmistakable  indica- 
tion of  the  prevalence  of  belief  in  the  final  salvation  of  all 
souls,  and  of  its  acceptance  by  many  intelligent  and  devout 
persons.^ 

Coming  into  the  nineteenth  century,  we  are  embarrassed 
by  the  wealth  of  our  material,  and  experience  more  diffi- 
culty in  determining  what  to  omit  than  in  selecting  what 
to  present.  Rev.  Messrs.  Richard  Wright,  John  Prior  Est- 
lin,  LL.D.,  Theophilus  Lindsey,  Thomas  Belsham,  Lant 
Carpenter,  LL.D.,  and  Thomas  Cogan,  M.D.,  were  promi- 
nent among  the  defenders  of  L^niversalism  in  the  Unitarian 
ranks.  Dr.  Carpenter,  in  reply  to  Dr.  William  Magee's 
work  on  the  Atonement,  takes  occasion  to  say :  "  Most 
of  us  (Unitarians)  believe  that  a  period  will  come  to  each 
individual  when  punishment  shall  have  done  its  work,  when 
the  awful  sufTerings  with  which  the  gospel  threatens  the 

1  To  Charles  W.  Tomlinson,  D.D.,  wliohas  given  much  attention  to  these 
Reviews,  and  noted  many  of  their  criticisms,  the  author  is  indebted  for  most 
of  what  he  has  said  of  them. 


358  THE    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  ii. 

impenitent  and  disobedient  will  have  humbled  the  stubborn, 
purified  the  polluted,  and  eradicated  impiety,  hypocrisy, 
and  every  evil  disposition,  .  .  .  and  God  shall  be  all  in 
all." 

Thomas  Erskine,  of  Linlathen,  a  Scotch  lawyer,  was  a 
man  of  exalted  Christian  character,  and  a  writer  of  more 
than  ordinary  ability.  Brought  up  in  the  Episcopal  Church, 
he  had  a  hearty  fellowship  for  Christians  of  every  name. 
Of  him  Principal  Shairp  said  in  the  "  Scotsman,"  a  few 
days  after  his  decease  :  "  The  distinguishing"  characteristic 
of  Mr.  Erskine,  that  which  made  him  what  he  was,  lay  in 
the  intense  and  pure  religious  faith  that  possessed  him. 
This  burned  within  him,  a  deep  and  central  fire,  absorbing 
or  rather  transfiguring  his  fine  natural  gifts  and  attainments 
— scholarship,  refinement,  humor,  and  powers  of  argument. 
To  his  loving  nature,  that  first  truth  of  Christianity,  that 
God  is  love,  had  come  home  with  a  power  and  totality  of 
conviction  which  it  is  given  few  to  feel."  And  he  added : 
"  Arising,  perhaps,  out  of  this  tendency  in  Mr.  Erskine  to 
be  absorbed  in  one  great  truth,  which  he  made  to  over- 
bear all  other  truths  that  opposed  it,  was  his  belief  in  the 
final  restoration  of  all  men.  This  seemed  to  him  to  be  the 
legitimate  issue  of  the  gospel.  The  conviction  that  it  was 
so  grew  on  him  latterly  and  he  expressed  it  freely.  He 
used  to  dwell  much  on  those  passages  in  St.  Paul's  epistles 
which  seemed  to  him  to  favor  this  cherished  belief  of  his. 
.  .  .  No  man  that  I  ever  knew  had  a  deeper  feeling  of  tlie 
exceeding  evil  of  sin,  and  of  the  divine  necessity  that  sin 
must  always  be  misery.  His  Universalist  views  did  not  in 
any  way  relax  his  profound  sense  of  God's  abhorrence  of 
sin."  In  the  Schafif-Herzog  Encyclopaedia  he  is  spoken 
of  as  having  rebelled  at  the  current  Scotch  theology,  and 
as  having  at  length  found  a  better  way ;  that  his  views 
were  not  "  orthodox,"  and  at  first  subjected  him  to  con- 


DR.   C ROME  IE.  359 

siderable  adverse  criticism.  "  But,"  the  writer  adds,  "  they 
gained  favor  ;  and  he  numbered  among  his  intimate  friends 
some  of  the  finest  minds  of  the  century — Thomas  Carlyle, 
JKdward  Irving,  Frederick  Uenison  Maurice,  John  McLeod 
Campbell,  Bishop  Kvving,  and  Dean  Stanley.  Maurice  and 
Campbell  were  indebted  to  him  for  those  conceptions  of 
the  Atonement  which  have  had  so  great  an  efifect  upon 
later  English  and  American  popular  religious  thought ;  and 
it  was  Campbell's  public  advocacy  of  them  which  led  to 
his  expulsion  from  the  Kirk.  Mr.  Erskine's  theology  was 
part  of  his  life,  it  permeated  his  being;  and  it  was  his 
unfailing  delight  to  impress  his  views  upon  all  he  met. 
His  sincerity,  his  earnestness,  his  pure  and  lofty  charac- 
ter, gave  him  a  great  influence."  His  publications,  begin- 
ning in  1820,  continued  until  1837.  A  posthumous  work 
appeared  in  1871. 

In  1829  Rev.  Alexander  Crombie,  LL.D.,  pastor  of  a 
Presbyterian  church  in  London,  published,  in  two  volumes, 
a  work  entitled  "  Natural  Theology,"  etc.  He  is  men- 
tioned in  Hagenbach's  "  History  of  Doctrines"  as  one  of 
"  the  recent  representatives  of  Scotch  theology,"  among 
such  men  as  John  Brown,  Dick,  Dewar,  Symington,  McCrie, 
lUichanan,  Candlish,  Cunningham,  Eadie,  Fairbain,  and 
others,  who  "  unite  adherence  to  the  older  confessions 
with  a  liberal  and  earnest  scholarship."  At  first  he  ex- 
presses himself  with  regard  to  the  destiny  of  the  race  in 
a  hoi)eful  spirit : 

"  As  it  would  be  a  contradiction  to  believe  that  the 
counsels  of  Omnipotence  can  be  defeated,  we  must  con- 
clude that  this  faculty  (conscience),  evidently  intended  for 
our  improvement  in  \irtiie  and  liappiness,  will  not  ulti- 
mately fail  of  its  ctTect;  and  that  its  salutary  influence,  its 
pains  and  its  pleasures,  will  be  continued  until  the  scheme 
of  l'ro\idence  in  the  production  of  our  s}-stem  shall  be  per- 


360  THE    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  11. 

fected.  The  dissolution  of  the  body  can  effect  no  instan- 
taneous change  in  the  habits  of  the  soul.  Whatever  may- 
be the  moral  character  at  death,  the  same  must  accom- 
pany us  into  another  state.  The  sting  of  sin  must  bring 
its  punishment.  But  from  the  benevolence  of  the  Divine 
Being,  we  have  every  reason  to  hope  that  the  sufferings 
of  the  wicked  will  be  remedial,  that  they  will  be  propor- 
tioned to  their  various  degrees  of  guilt,  and  continued  until 
the  purposes  of  the  Divine  Being  shall  be  fully  accom- 
plished. The  Christian,  surely,  should  be  delighted  to  in- 
dulge this  hope ;  and  though  there  be  one  or  two  passages 
in  the  New  Testament  which  seem  opposed  to  it,  the  gen- 
eral tenor  of  the  gospel  appears  favorable  to  this  expecta- 
tion. Reason  forbids  us  to  admit  the  Manichean  doctrine 
of  two  eternal  principles,  one  good  and  the  other  evil ;  or 
to  believe  that  evil  of  any  kind  will  be  eternal.  Such  a 
notion  would  amount  to  a  denial  of  the  infinite  perfections 
and  universal  sovereignty  of  the  Supreme  Being.  How 
much  more  pleasing  to  our  best  affections  is  the  thought 
that  the  time  will  come  when  e\-ery  creature  in  heaven, 
in  earth,  under  the  earth  and  in  the  sea,  and  all  that  are 
in  them,  will  be  found  praising  God." 

Finally,  having  gone  over  the  proofs  of  a  future  state, 
Dr.  Crombie  thus  announces  his  settled  conviction : 

"  These,  then,  are  the  grounds  of  my  expectation  of 
another  state  of  being,  when  we  shall  be  deli\-ered  from 
the  imperfections  and  evils  inseparable  from  mortality,  and 
fitted  for  a  more  intimate  communion  with  our  Maker; 
when  it  will  be  our  occupation  and  delight  to  contemplate 
with  improving  faculties  his  stupendous  works,  and  to 
adore  with  reverence  his  transcendent  perfections ;  when 
we  shall  be  reunited  to  those  whom  we  loved  on  earth, 
and  join  with  them  and  every  human  being,  of  every  nation 
and  every  language,  whatever  sufferings  here  or  hereafter 


REV.  DAVID    TIIOM.  36 1 

some  for  their  correction  may  pre\iously  undergo,  in  the 
sublime  offices  of  devotion  to  our  Creator  and  Benefactor, 
through  the  never-ending  rexolutions  of  eternity.  Blessed 
state,  whence  every  malignant  passion  is  excluded,  and 
where  peace,  harmony,  and  felicity  forever  dwell!" 

Rev.  David  Thom,  also  a  Scotch  Presbyterian,  deposed 
from  the  Rodney  Street  Church  in  Liverpool,  in  1825,  for 
heresies,  in  which,  however,  Universalism  was  not  included, 
but  followed  by  a  portion  of  his  former  congregation  to 
another  portion  of  the  city,  where  they  duly  organized, 
became  a  believer  in  Universalism  in  1829.  "Much  the 
greater  number  of  his  hearers  stood  with  hmi."  His  the- 
ology was  eclectic  and  exceedingly  unique,  and  he  has 
probably  had  no  successor.  Human  nature,  he  held,  was 
not  immortal  and  must  be  done  away,  swallowed  up  in  the 
divine  nature  of  Jehovah-Jesus.  As  to  its  merely  human 
elements  it  must  perish,  but  by  Christ's  union  with  it  in 
the  flesh,  everlasting  life  will  be  freely  conferred  on  all 
who  have  ever  borne  the  image  of  the  earthy.  The  gos- 
pel considers  mankind  in  two  characters  and  two  natures. 
As  connected  with  Adam,  they  are  sinful  subjects  of  pun- 
ishment and  must  be  destroyed ;  as  connected  with  Christ, 
they  are  justified  and  saved  with  an  everlasting  salvation. 
For  his  knowledge  of  these  views  he  claimed  direct  aid  of 
the  Spirit  of  God,  but  believed  that  it  was  improbable  that 
many  should  be  brought  in  this  life  to  the  understanding 
of  them.  He  preached  his  theology  with  great  confidence 
and  zeal,  and  ha\ing  no  fellowship  with  American  Univer- 
salists,  objected  to  any  and  all  proofs  of  the  restitution 
of  all  things  which  were  not  based  on  his  peculiar  para- 
doxes. 

One  of  the  most  eminent  names  in  Great  Britain  is  that 
of  Sir  James  Edward  Smith,  for  half  a  century  at  the  head 
of  the  botanists  of  that  kingdom.      "  He  found  the  science 


362  THE    UNIVEKSALISTS.  [Chap.  ii. 

of  botany,"  said  the  "  Philosophical  Magazine,"  "  when  he 
approached  it,  locked  up  in  a  dead  language :  he  set  it 
free  by  transfusing  it  into  his  own.  He  found  it  a  severe 
study,  fitted  only  for  the  recluse :  he  left  it  of  easy  acqui- 
sition to  all.  In  the  hands  of  his  predecessors,  with  the 
exception  of  his  immortal  master  (Linnaeus),  it  was  dry, 
technical,  and  scholastic:  in  his  it  was  adorned  with  grace 
and  elegance,  and  might  attract  the  poet  as  \\€\\.  as  the 
philosopher."  In  his  "  Memoirs  and  Correspondence," 
edited  by  Lady  Smith,  his  widow,  and  published  in  1832, 
full  proof  is  given  of  his  belief  in  Universalism.  "  He 
was  adverse,"  says  Lady  Smith,  "  to  such  a  view  of  the 
Supreme  Being  as  is  injurious  to  the  perfect  goodness  of 
Ills  character,  which,  because  his  power  is  unlimited,  has 
supposed  it  might  please  him  to  exercise  that  power  to 
the  subversion  of  his  no  less  immutable  attributes,  justice 
and  mercy.  Such  views  of  our  Creator  appeared  to  him 
dishonorable  to  that  parental  character  which  makes  our 
admiration  spring  from  the  heart  and  delight  in  obeying 
his  commands;  such  a  view  is  to  invest  him  in  the  e\il 
passions,  the  imperfection,  and  weakness  of  humanity.  He 
believes  that  God's  justice  has  for  its  end  the  highest  vir- 
tue of  the  creation,  and  punishes  for  this  end  alone ;  and 
thus  it  coincides  with  benevolence,  for  virtue  and  happi- 
ness, though  not  the  same,  are  inseparably  conjoined.  He 
looked  upon  this  world  as  a  place  of  education,  in  which 
God  is  training  men,  by  mercies  and  sufferings,  by  means 
and  opportunities  of  various  virtues,  by  trials  of  principle, 
by  the  conflicts  of  reason  and  passion,  by  a  discipline  suited 
to  free  moral  beings  for  union  with  himself,  and  for  sublime 
and  ever-growing  virtue  in  heaven."  "  The  subject  of 
the  present  memoir  cherished  a  perfect  faith  in  the  good- 
ness of  God.  The  goodness  of  God  was  '  the  reason  of 
the  hope  that  was  in  him.'      Relie\^ing  that  he  framed  the 


REV.  JOHN  FOSTER.  363 

human  soul  for  eternal  duration  and  happiness,  he  never 
troubled  himself  about  the  time  or  manner  of  his  future 
existence,  or  what  was  to  constitute  it ;  considering  him- 
self incapable  of  forming  any  judgment,  he  relied  on  the 
benevolence  of  that  parental  Being,  who  had  '  vouchsafed 
to  call  him  hither  to  this  great  assembly  and  entertain- 
ment, and  had  permitted  him  to  contemplate  his  works,  to 
admire  and  adore  his  providence,  and  to  comprehend  the 
wisdom  of  his  conduct.'  The  apparent  evil,  the  partiality, 
the  injustice,  in  our  present  life  were  to  him  assurances, 
combined  with  revelation,  of  a  more  perfect  state  here- 
after." 

In  1841,  only  two  years  before  his  death.  Rev.  John 
Foster,  world-famed  as  a  brilliant  essayist,  a  cautious  as 
well  as  a  jjrofound  thiiik'cr,  a\-(>wed,  in  a  letter  to  a  young 
clergyman,  his  disbelief  in  the  doctrine  of  the  eternity  of 
punishment.  The  existence  of  such  a  letter  was  not  gen- 
erally known  until  1846,  when  his  "  Life  and  Correspond- 
ence," edited  by  J.  \\.  Ryland,  was  published  ;  but  as  early 
as  1796  he  writes  to  his  tutor  and  intimate  friend,  Rev. 
Joseph  Hughes:  "  My  o})inions  have  suffered  some  altera- 
tions. I  have  discarded,  for  instance,  the  doctrine  of  eter- 
nal punishment."  His  opinions  in  1841  are  not,  therefore, 
simply  the  opinions  of  his  old  age,  but  those  which  he 
held  for  nearly  half  a  century.  In  this  letter  of  latest  date 
he  acknowledged  that  he  had  read  very  little  of  what  had 
been  written  on  the  subject,  nor  had  he  cared  to  indulge 
in  criticism  of  incidental  passages  of  Scripture.  "  It  is  the 
moral  argument,  as  it  may  be  named,  that  presses  irre- 
sistibly on  my  mind — that  which  comes  in  the  stupendous 
idea  of  eternity.  It  appears  to  me  that  the  teachers  and 
believers  of  the  orthodox  doctrine  hardly  ever  make  an 
earnest,  strenuous  effort  to  form  a  conception  of  eternity  ; 
or  rather  a  conception  somewhat  of  the  nature  of  a  faint. 


364  ^-^-^    UNIVERSALISrS.  [Chai-.  ii. 

incipient  approximation."  He  concedes  that  sinners  de- 
serve punishment.  "  But  endless  punishment,  hopeless 
misery,  through  a  duration  to  which  the  enormous  terms 
above  imagined  will  be  absolutely  nothing!  I  acknowl- 
edge my  inability  (I  would  say  it  reverently)  to  admit  this 
belief,  together  with  a  belief  in  the  divine  goodness — the 
belief  that '  God  is  love,'  that  his  tender  mercies  are  over 
all  his  works.  Goodness,  benevolence,  charity,  as  ascribed 
in  supreme  perfection  to  him,  cannot  mean  a  quality  foreign 
to  all  human  conceptions  of  goodness ;  it  must  be  some- 
thing analogous  in  principle  to  what  himself  has  defined 
and  required  as  goodness  in  his  moral  creatures,  that,  in 
adoring  the  divine  goodness,  we  may  not  be  worshiping 
an  '  unknown  God.'  But  if  so,  how  would  all  our  ideas 
be  confounded,  while  contemplating  him  bringing,  of  his 
own  sovereign  will,  a  race  of  creatures  into  existence  in 
such  a  condition  that  they  certainly  will  and  must,  must, 
by  their  nature  and  circumstances,  go  wrong,  and  be  mis- 
erable unless  prevented  by  special  grace — which  is  the 
privilege  of  only  a  small  portion  of  them — and  at  the 
same  time  af^xing  on  their  delinquency  a  doom  of  which 
it  is  infinitely  beyond  the  highest  archangel's  faculty  to 
apprehend  a  thousandth  part  of  the  horror." 

To  the  argument  that  sin  is  an  infinite  evil  and  deserves, 
therefore,  an  infinite  penalty,  he  pertinently  answers:  "  If 
an  evil  act  of  a  finite  being  may  be  of  infinite  demerit, 
why  may  not  a  good  one  be  of  infinite  excellence  or  merit 
as  having  also  a  reference  to  the  Infinite  Being?  Is  it 
not  plain  that  every  act  of  a  finite  nature  must  have  in  all 
senses  the  finite  quality  of  that  nature — cannot,  therefore, 
be  of  infinite  demerit?  "  Of  the  c^ssertion  that  there  will 
be  an  endless  continuance  of  sinning,  with  probably  an 
endless  aggravation,  and  therefore  the  punishment  must 
be  endless,  he  says :  "  Is  not  this  like  an  admission  of  dis- 


KE\:  JOIIX  lOSTER.  365 

proportion  between  the  punishment  and  the  orit^inal  cause 
of  its  infliction?  But  suppose  the  case  to  be  so — that  is 
to  say,  that  the  punishment  is  not  a  retribution  simply  for 
the  guilt  of  the  momentary  existence  on  earth,  but  a  con- 
tinued punishment  of  the  continued,  ever-aggravated  guilt 
in  the  eternal  state — the  allegation  is  of  no  avail  in  vindica- 
tion of  the  doctrine;  because  the  first  consignment  of  the 
dreadful  state  necessitates  a  continuance  of  the  criminality  ; 
the  doctrine  teaching  that  it  is  of  the  essence,  and  is  an 
awful  aggravation,  of  the  original  consignment,  that  it 
dooms  the  condemned  to  maintain  the  criminal  spirit  un- 
changed forever.  To  doom  to  sin  as  well  as  to  sufl"er, 
and,  according  to  the  argument,  to  sin  in  order  to  sufTer, 
is  inflicted  as  the  punishment  of  the  sin  committed  in  the 
mortal  state.  Virtually,  therefore,  the  eternal  punishment 
is  the  punishment  of  the  sins  of  time." 

The  Scriptures,  he  feels,  ought  to  be  appealed  to,  and 
he  is  convinced  that  "  on  no  allowable  interpretation  do 
they  signify  less  than  a  very  protracted  duration  and  for- 
midable severity.  But,"  he  adds,  "  I  hope  it  is  not  pre- 
sumptuous to  take  advantage  of  the  fact  that  the  terms 
'  everlasting,'  '  eternal,' '  forever,'  '  original,'  or  '  translated  ' 
are  often  employed  in  the  Bible,  as  well  as  other  writings, 
under  great  and  various  limitations  of  import;  and  are  thus 
withdrawn  from  the  predicament  of  necessarily  and  abso- 
lutely meaning  a  strictly  endless  duration.  The  limitation 
is  often,  indeed,  plainly  marked  by  the  nature  of  the  sub- 
ject. .  .  .  My  resource  in  the  present  case,  then,  is  simply 
this  :  that  since  the  terms  do  not  necessarily  and  absolutely 
signify  an  interminable  duration,  and  since  there  is  in  the 
present  instance  to  be  pleaded,  for  admitting  a  limited  in- 
terpretation, a  reason  in  the  moral  estimate  of  things^  of 
stupendous,  of  infinite  urgency,  involving  our  conceptions 
of  the  divine  goodness  and  equity,  and  leaving  those  con- 


366  THE    UNIVERSA LISTS.  [Chap.  ii. 

ceptions  overwhelmed  in  darkness  and  horror  if  it  be  re- 
jected, I  therefore  conclude  that  a  limited  interpretation  is 
authorized." 

As  to  the  belief  of  some  in  the  "  annihilation  of  exist- 
ence, after  a  more  or  less  protracted  penal  infliction,"  he 
confesses  that  he  has  not  given  it  much  thought.  "  Even 
this,"  he  says,  "  would  be  a  prodigious  relief;  but  it  is  an 
admission  that  the  terms  in  question  do  mean  something 
final,  in  an  absolute  sense."  It  is  not  improbable  to  sup- 
pose that  he  clearly  saw  to  what  alternatix-e  he  was  shut 
up ;  but  he  made  no  confession  of  belief  in  Universalism, 
he  could  only  say  :  "  One  would  wish  to  indulge  the  hope, 
founded  on  the  divine  attribute  of  infinite  benevolence,  that 
there  will  be  a  period  somewhere  in  the  endless  futurity 
when  all  God's  sinning  creatures  will  be  restored  by  him 
to  rectitude  and  happiness."  Assuring  his  correspondent 
that  other  ministers  stand  with  him  in  disbelief  in  the 
eternity  of  punishment,  he  puts  in  an  apology  for  them 
for  not  publicly  avowing  it  by  saying  that,  "  For  one 
thing,  a  consideration  of  the  unreasonable  imputations 
and  unmeasured  suspicions  apt  to  be  cast  on  any  publicly 
declared  partial  defection  from  rigid  orthodoxy  has  made 
them  think  they  should  better  consult  their  usefulness  by 
not  giving  a  prominence  to  this  dissentient  point ;  while 
yet  they  make  no  concealment  of  it  in  private  communi- 
cations, and  in  answer  to  serious  inquiries." 

A  year  later  than  the  date  of  this  letter,  writing  to  Rev. 
Dr.  Harris,  Mr.  Foster  makes  use  of  an  expression  touching 
this  "  short  term  of  mortal  existence,"  that  it  is  "  absurdly 
sometimes  denominated  a  probation."  That  seems  still 
more  closely  to  shut  him  up  to  Universalist  views  of  the 
future.  But  whatever  may  have  been  the  conclusion  in 
which  his  own  mind  and  heart  rested,  it  is  certain  that 
the  publication  of  his  strong  moral  argument  against  the 


TOWXSJ/EXD—McDOXALD.  ^fyj 

eternity  of  punishment   lias  led  many  into  the  acceptance 
of  Universalism.' 

Rev.  Chauncy  Ilare  Townshend,  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, published,  in  1851,  a  volume  of  "Sermons  in  Son- 
nets," many  of  which  teach  Universalism.  We  give  the 
first : 

The  times  of  restitution  of  all  things.— Acts  iii.  21. 
Give  evil  l)iit  an  end — and  all  is  clear! 
Make  it  eternal — all  things  are  obscured! 
And  all  that  we  have  thought,  felt,  wept,  endured. 
Worthless.     We  feel  that  ev'n  if  our  own  tear 
Were  wiped  away  forever,  no  true  cheer 
Could  to  our  yearning  bosoms  be  secured 
While  we  believed  that  sorrow  clung  uncured 
To  any  being  we  on  earth  held  dear. 
Oh,  much  doth  life  the  sweet  solution  want 
Of  all  made  blest  in  far  futurity! 
Heaven  needs  it  too.      Our  bosoms  yearn  and  pant 
Rather  indeed  our  God  to  justify 
Than  our  own  selves.      Oh,  why  then  dr.)]i  the  key 
That  tunes  discordant  worlds  to  liarnu)ny  } 

Rev.  George  McDonald,  formerly  a  Congregationalist, 
now  in  the  Episcopal  Churcli,  has  been  preaching  Uni- 
versalism, lo!  these  many  years.  In  a  volume  entitled 
"Unspoken  Sermons,"  published  in  London  in  1867,  lit-' 
distinctly  avowed  it  as  his  faith  concerning  destiny.  In 
the  sernK^n  on  "  God  a  Consuming  Fire  "  he  represents 
that  It  IS  a  fire  of  love,  operative  so  long  as  whatever  is 
opposed  to  it  remains  unconsumed.  Sharp,  severe,  but 
beneficent,  it  must  subdue  and  bless  all  who  need  purifi- 
cation :  "  lUit  at  length,  O  God,  wilt  thou  not  cast  death 
and  hell  into  the  lake  of  fire — even  into  thine  own  con- 
suming self?     Death  shall  then  die  everlastingly, 

Ancl  hell  itself  will  pass  away, 

AikI  leave  her  dolorous  mansions  to  the  peering  day. 

'   "  Life  and  Correspondence,"  Boston  edition,  iSco,  vol.  i.,  v.  27    vol    ii 
pp.  2b3  If. ,  290.  t       / '        •     • ' 


368  THE    UMVERSALISTS.  {(Iww.  ii. 

Then,  iiulced,  wilt  thou  be  all  in  all.  For  then  our  poor 
brothers  and  sisters,  every  one — O  God,  we  trust  in  thee, 
the  consuming  fire — shall  have  been  burned  clean  and 
brought  home.  For  if  their  moans,  myriads  of  ages  away, 
would  turn  heaven  for  us  into  hell — shall  a  man  be  more 
merciful  than  God?  Shall,  of  all  his  glories,  his  mercy 
alone  not  be  infinite  ?  Shall  a  brother  love  a  brother  more 
than  the  Father  loves  a  son  ? — more  than  the  Brother  Christ 
loves  his  brother?  Would  he  not  die  yet  again  to  save 
one  brother  more?  " 

In  1874  the  Rev.  R.  W.  Dale,  of  Birmingham,  read  a 
paper  before  the  Congregational  Union  of  England,  en- 
titled "  The  Congregationalism  of  the  Present — its  Theol- 
ogy and  its  Spiritual  Work."  Speaking  of  the  manifest 
"drift"  of  the  English  Congregational  mind  in  respect  to 
the  doctrine  of  future  punishment,  the  author  expresses 
his  conviction  that  it  is  likely  to  react  disastrously  on  the 
whole  structure  of  doctrines  held  by  the  church,  unless 
the  question  is  discussed  "  with  the  utmost  frankness,  and 
with  a  deep  impression  of  its  transcendent  importance." 
He  says  in  this  connection :  "  Now,  to  what  extent  there 
has  been  a  definite  surrender  on  the  part  of  Congrega- 
tional ministers  and  churches  of  the  old  faith  in  the  end- 
lessness of  future  sufifering  I  cannot  tell.  That  there  is  any 
general  acceptance  of  the  doctrine  of  uni\-ersal  restoration 
I  do  not  believe.  I  am  inclined  to  think  with  many  that 
the  doctrine  of  our  forefathers  has  been  silently  relegated, 
with  or  without  very  serious  consideration,  to  that  province 
of  the  intellect  which  is  the  home  of  those  beliefs  which 
we  have  not  rejected,  but  which  we  are  willing  to  forget. 
I  have  some  fear  that  the  possibility  of  universal  restora- 
tion, wliile  not  consciously  received,  is  exerting  a  consider- 
able influence  on  the  thought  of  very  many  of  our  people, 
on  our  own  thought,  and  on  our  own  preaching."     Pro- 


EAiJJJS/I   COXGA'EGAT/OXALISTS.  369 

ceediiify  then  to  announce  his  own  departure  from  the  old 
standards,  he  avows  his  behef  in  the  doctrine  of  the  anni- 
hilation of  the  wicked.  This  address,  reported  in  the  "  Eng- 
lisii  Independent,"  the  same  issue  containing  also  an  account 
of  the  "  Anniversary  of  the  London  Missionary  Society," 
on  which  occasion  Dr.  Raleigh  combated  the  notion  that 
the  heathen  dying  without  a  knowledge  of  Christ  went 
their  way  to  everlasting  destruction — a  declaration  which 
was  received  with  great  applause — furnished  an  occasion 
for  the  late  editor  of  the  Boston  "  Congregationalist  "  to 
say  :  "  We  have  heard  it  affirmed  by  those  who  professed 
to  know,  that  this  drift  is  especially  true  in  regard  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  future  punishment  of  the  impenitent;  some 
even  going  so  far  as  to  affirm  that  there  is  but  an  incon- 
siderable percentage  of  the  London  Congregational  pas- 
tors who  would  be  willing  to  preach  anything  resembling 
the  old  theology  on  that  subject — or  whose  congregations 
would  consent  to  hear  them  if  they  did  so.  This  has 
always  seemed  to  us  to  be  a. gross  exaggeration,  while  we 
have  been  well  aware  that  the  minds  of  some  of  the  most 
eminent  Congregational  pastors  of  London  and  its  vicinity 
have  felt  so  sorely  the  perplexities  surrounding  the  sub- 
ject of  the  relation  of  the  goodness  of  God  to  the  doom 
of  the  wicked,  as  to  lead  them  to  speak  most  cautiously, 
if  at  all,  with  regard  to  it ;  and  to  feel  that  more  light  is 
to  be  hoped  for  in  further  study  of  the  Word  in  regard  to 
it.  Good  old  Mr.  Binney  is  reported  to  have  said,  on  more 
than  one  occasion,  when  pressed  with  these  difficulties,  that 
'  he  hoped  the  infinitely  good  and  infinitely  fertile  Intelli- 
gence wdiich  presides  over  all  may  conceive  of  and  adjust 
some  way  in  which  the  horrible  catastroj)he  of  the  reme- 
diless wickedness  of  any  human  soul  may  be  consistently 
averted.*  '  As  to  this  matter,  we  keep  silence  and  wait,' 
was  substantially  the   testimony  gi\-en   two  years  since  to 


370  THE    UN-IVEKSALISrS.  [Chap.  ii. 

the  writer  by  one  of  the  fatuous  preachers  of  England — 
a  man  well  known  and  much  honored,  as  well,  on  this  side 
of  the  sea." 

In  the  twenty  years  which  have  elapsed  since  the  above 
was  written  there  has  been  no  abatement  of  interest  in 
religious  circles  abroad  on  this  subject.  In  a  recently 
published  work  entitled  "The  Wider  Hope,"  containing 
"  Essays  and  Strictures  on  the  Doctrine  and  Literature  of 
Future  Punishment,"  is  "  A  Bibliographical  Appendix  of 
Recent  Works  on  Eschatology  as  Contained  in  the  Brit- 
ish Museum."  Of  a  total  of  one  hundred  and  eighty  vol- 
umes, one  hundred  and  four  were  published  on  the  other 
side  of  the  water,  eighty  of  them  in  London,  and  none  at 
an  earlier  date  than  1877.  Besides  these,  fifty-seven  arti- 
cles are  noted  as  having  recently  appeared  on  the  same 
subject  in  British  critical  and  theological  magazines  and 
reviews.  These  facts  indicate  not  only  the  prevalence  of 
Universalism  abroad,  but  also  great  activity  in  its  propaga- 
tion and  defense. 

The  presence  of  Universalism  abroad  would  be  still  more 
plainly  manifest  if,  enlarging  the  field  of  our  observation, 
we  should  include  a  notice  of  its  advocacy  in  polite  litera- 
ture, in  song  and  in  story.  But  although  this  is  a  large 
and  delightful  field  and  most  fruitful  in  results,  we  have 
not  entered  it,  preferring  to  call  attention  exclusively  to 
the  opinions  and  position  of  theologians  and  Christian 
philosophers  and  preachers.  And  we  have  also  supposed 
that  our  effort  in  this  direction  would  be  most  satisfactory 
and  just,  if,  instead  of  giving  what  we  might  prepare  as  a 
summary  of  their  views,  we  should  present  them  in  their 
own  words,  even  at  the  risk  of  repetition  in  many  cases 
where  similar  phraseology  had  already  been  cited ;  or  of 
obscure  and  somewhat  involved  phrases  in  other  instances; 
or  of  quite  lengthy  quotations  in  a  few  cases.      In  calling 


OLSIIA  USEN. 


371 


attention,  as  we  have  frequently  done,  to  the  learning, 
abilit}',  and  moral  excellence  of  those  whom  we  have 
named  and  quoted  as  believers  in  and  advocates  of  the 
salvation  of  the  world,  we  have,  we  are  sure,  confirmed 
the  declaration  of  Olshausen  that  Universalism  "  has  no 
doubt  a  deep  root  in  noble  minds — is  the  expression  of  a 
heartfelt  desire  for  a  perfect  harmony  in  the  creation."^ 

1  Olshausen's  Commentary,  New  York  edition,  1857,  vol.  i.,  p.  460. 


CHAPTER    III. 

IN    AMERICA    PRIOR    TO    OR   INDEPENDENT    OF   JOHN 
MURRAY. 

Among  those  who  were  called  heretics  in  the  early  New 
England  days,  one  of  the  most  noted  was  Samuel  Gorton, 
who  figures  conspicuously  in  the  history  of  the  Massachu- 
setts, Plymouth,  and  Rhode  Island  colonies.  He  came 
from  England  in  the  spring  of  1636-37,  and  stopping  but 
a  short  time  in  Boston,  went  to  Plymouth,  where  he  met 
with  so  little  favor  that  he  found  it  conducive  to  his  com- 
fort to  obtain  a  home  in  Rhode  Island.  In  a  biographical 
sketch  appended  to  a  modern  edition  of  Gorton's  "  Simplic- 
ity's Defence  Against  Seven-Headed  Policy,"  Mr.  .Staples 
warmly  eulogizes  him  by  saying  that  "  nothing  was  ever 
alleged  against  him,  even  by  his  most  inveterate  enemies." 
On  the  contrary.  Cotton  Mather  says  that  "  he  degener- 
ated into  a  beast,"  and  calls  his  opinions  "  blasphemous 
and  enormous." 

Gorton  thought  that  the  Puritans  and  Pilgrims  were,  as 
Coleridge  says,  too  much  concerned  about  "  other  world- 
liness,"  leading  them  to  undervalue  the  present  state  of 
existence.  He  affirmed  that  the  soul  now  exists  in  eter- 
nity, and  insisted  that  there  is  no  heaven  or  hell  save  in  the 
mind  ;  that  the  soul  is  independent  of  place,  and  the  future 
and  the  past  are  but  eternal  now.  His  whole  religious 
thought  ran  in  a  mystical  vein,  and  he  was  belligerent 
toward  all  differing  views.  He  championed  the  Quakers 
in  their  efforts  for  toleration,  but  fought  against  their  the- 

372 


GOR  TON—  VANE.  373 

ology ;  agreed  with  Roger  Williams  and  the  Baptists  in 
their  theory  of  freedom  of  conscience,  but  was  strong  in 
his  opposition  to  their  belief  concerning  ordinances,  "  beat- 
ing down,"  as  one  of  his  followers  expresses  it,  "  all  out- 
ward ordinances  of  baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper,  with 
unanswerable  demonstration."  Occasionally  he  expounded 
his  views  orally,  but  preaching  was  not  his  business.  His 
work  was  done  with  his  pen.  He  delighted  in  titles  based 
on  his  mystical  opinions,  and  in  one  of  his  conveyances  of 
land  calls  himself  "  Professor  of  the  Mysteries  of  Christ." 
He  so  delighted  in  hidden  meanings  and  in  allegory,  and 
had  such  fondness  for  far-fetched  allusions  and  imagery, 
that  a  degree  of  obscurity  characterizes  his  sentences  and 
makes  them  the  subject  of  speculation.  But  in  several 
passages,  both  of  prose  and  of  poetry,  his  belief  in  Uni- 
versalism  seems  evident,  as  in  the  following,  prefixed  to 
"  Simplicity's  Defence  "  : 

The  nations  shall  come  forth  at  once,  yea,  at  one  birth ; 
Truth  in  the  cliange  of  one  renewetli  all  the  earth ; 
Else  were  not  perfect  good  in  any  one  erect, 
Nor  sin  were  full,  through  th'  fall,  that  great  defect. 
If  change  of  one  were  not  a  world  renewed, 
What  nation,  then,  not  brought  in  and  subdued, 
When  truth  is  published,  though  but  unto  one 
Embraced,  received?     Oh,  happy  state  of  man, 
All  Gentiles  brought  in,  who  can  want? 

< 

Sir  Henry  Vane,  the  younger,  governor  of  Massachu- 
setts in  1636,  was  also  a  mystic.  Bishop  Burnett  says: 
"  Vane's  friends  told  me  that  he  leaned  to  Origen's  notion 
of  an  universal  salvation."^  Rev.  Mr.  Crouch,  in  a  ser- 
mon in  defense  of  the  "  Eternity  of  Hell  Torments,"  pub- 
lished in  England  a  century  ago,  says  that  "  the  doctrine 
of  Origen  formed  part  of  the  unintelligible  creed  of  Sir 

1  "  Life  and  'i'imes,"  p.  103. 


374  ^'^^^^    UNIVERSALISIS.  [CiiAi'.  in. 

Henry  Vane."  To  what  extent  Vane  sought  to  propa- 
gate his  religious  opinions  in  Massachusetts  is  unknown. 
Cotton  Mather  ^  says  that  the  evidence  is  conflicting,  but 
cites  a  manuscript  as  saying  that  "  before  he  was  scarce 
warm  in  his  seat  "  as  governor,  "  he  began  to  broach  new 
tenets."  In  one  of  his  latest  works,-  Vane,  speaking  of 
"the  Incarnation  and  the  fruits  thereof,"  says: 

"  We  see  thereby  the  Devil  and  his  Angels  disappointed 
in  their  wicked  designs ;  who,  by  the  bringing  in  of  Sin, 
were  in  hopes  to  have  hindered  the  growing  up  of  Jesus, 
the  Branch  that  was  to  spring  out  of  this  Root ;  but  David's 
Root,  sitting  as  Lord  at  God's  right  hand,  had  before  ob- 
tained that  power  which  was  to  subdue  all  enemies  and 
lay  them  flat  at  his  footstool.  David's  ofifspring,  therefore, 
was  in  no  danger  of  having  his  course  stopped,  or  race 
hindered,  wherein,  as  a  Mighty  Saviour  and  Redeemer,  he 
was  to  go  forth,  and  rescue  the  whole  spiritual  seed  out 
of  the  hands  of  Sin  and  Satan,  to  bring  them  into  the  true 
Rest,  and  obtain  a  gracious  reprieve  and  forbearance  for 
the  most  obstinate  and  rebellious  also"  (p.  91).  Speaking 
of  Jesus  as  the  second  Adam,  he  says :  "  He  did  all  that 
was  needful,  and  all  that  God  required  to  be  done,  for  the 
remission  of  sin  and  the  utter  abolishing  and  removing  it 
out  of  man's  nature  with  an  absolute  incapacity  of  ever 
returning  more  upon  the  true  and  right  heirs  of  salvation. 
In  respect  whereof  it  is  said,  that  as  by  one  man's  dis- 
obedience many  (that  is,  all)  were  made  sinners,  so  by  the 
obedience  of  one  many  (that  is,  all)  shall  be  made  righteous 
— having  that  ransom  paid,  and  means  provided  in  him  to 
make  them  righteous :  so  that  there  shall  be  no  necessity 
remaining  upon  any  to  perish,  forasmuch  as  sufficient  pro- 

1  "  Magnalia,"  book  ii.,  chap.  v. 

2  "The  Retired  Man's  Meditations;  or,  The  Mystery  of  Ciodliness,"  Lon- 
don, ibqs,  pp.  91,  95. 


DR.  DE   BEiXXEVILLE.  375 

vision  is  made  to  bring  all  men  to  repentance  and  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  truth ;  that  as  in  Adam  all  died,  so  in 
this  sense  all,  again,  in  Christ  are  made  alive  "  (p.  95). 

Dr.  George  de  Benneville,  of  French  parentage,  but 
born  in  London  in  1703,  settled  in  Pennsylvania  in  1741. 
He  began  to  preach  when  quite  young,  botii  in  England 
and  in  France.  In  Normand}-  he  found  a  few  clergymen 
whose  names  he  has  recorded,  Durant,  Chevrette,  Dumou- 
lin,  L'Archar,  who  were  willing  to  associate  with  him  in 
preaching  to  the  people  in  woods  and  valleys,  where  great 
crowds  gathered  to  hear  them.  Some  of  their  number  were 
arrested  and  put  to  death,  some  whipped  and  branded,  and 
some  were  sent  to  the  galleys.  At  length  Durant  and  De 
Benneville  were  seized  and  condemned  to  die,  the  former 
by  hanging  and  the  latter  by  the  ax.  Durant  ascended 
the  ladder,  sung  a  psalm,  and  died  joyfully.  De  Benne- 
ville was  on  his  knees  praying  for  the  forgiveness  of  his 
enemies,  when  a  courier  arrived  from  the  king  with  a  re- 
prieve. He  was  taken  to  Paris,  and  imprisoned  and  finally 
liberated.  Afterward  he  went  to  Germany  and  formed  an 
extensive  acquaintance,  among  others,  with  De  Marsay, 
through  wliom  he  became  intimate  with  Ilaug,  Hoch- 
man,  Dippel,  and  others  mentioned  on  a  prex'ious  page, 
as  engaged  in  the  translation  and  commentary  known  as 
the  "  Berleburger  Bibel."  After  preaching  several  years 
in  Germany  he  was  takei\  sick,  was  supposed  to  ha\e 
died,  and  was  placed  in  his  coffin  for  burial.  Reviving, 
he  claimed,  as  ever  after  he  believed  with  great  sincerity, 
that  he  had  been  separated  from  his  body  while  it  la}'  in 
the  coffin,  had  been  both  to  heaven  and  to  hell,  and  had 
been  privileged  with  a  view  of  what  is  to  take  place  in 
"  the  dispensation  of  the  fullness  of  times — the  restoration 
of  all  souls."  Restored  to  health  and  again  attempting  to 
preach,  he  was  again  imprisoned,  and  on  being  set  at  lib- 


376  THE    UNI  VERSA  LISTS.  [Chap.  hi. 

erty  came  to  America,  feeling  himself  called  on  to  preach 
the  gospel  in  the  New  World. 

After  his  marriage,  in  1745,  he  joined  with  his  father- 
in-law  in  the  erection  of  a  substantial  mansion  at  Oley,  a 
large  chamber  in  which  was  constructed  especially  for  con- 
venience as  a  schoolroom  and  a  place  of  worship.  Prior 
to  this  he  had  occasionally  preached  in  a  Moravian  school- 
house  about  three  miles  north  of  the  spot  selected  for  his 
residence.  Some  years  after  this  he  changed  his  residence 
to  Milestown,  where  he  remained  until  his  death,  in  1793, 
chiefly  engaged  in  the  practice  of  medicine,  in  which  he 
is  said  to  have  had  great  skill.  Until  pre^■ented  by  old 
age,  it  was  his  custom  to  journey  twice  a  year  through 
the  western  portion  of  Pennsylvania  and  to  Maryland  and 
Virginia,  for  the  purpose  of  preaching.  In  i  790  he  wrote 
to  his  daughter:  "  In  my  old  age,  since  I  am  eighty-eight 
years  old,  my  mind  is  still  set  to  preach  the  gospel." 
Having  a  strong  aversion  to  the  publication  of  anything 
relating  to  himself,  he  destroyed  many  of  his  manuscripts. 
Among  the  papers  which  remained  was  a  manuscript  Ger- 
man translation  of  Marsay's  Commentary  on  the  Apoca- 
lypse, which  was  published  at  Lebanon,  Pa.,  in  1808. 

Many  of  the  early  settlers  in  Germantown  were  from 
Krisheim  and  Frankfort,  Germany  ;  the  former  were  either 
Mennonites  or  Quakers  when  they  came ;  the  latter  were 
German  mystics.  The  mystics  brought  with  them  copies 
of  Klein-Nicolai's  "Everlasting  Gospel,"  Schiitz's  "  Golden 
Rose,"  and  Schaeffer's  "  Everlasting  Gospel,"  mentioned 
in  chapter  ii.  On  the  suggestion  of  Dr.  De  Benneville, 
Klein-Nicolai's  work,  still  attributed  to  Siegvolck,  was 
translated  into  English  and  quite  extensively  circulated 
"■^  1753-  These  books,  both  the  German  and  the  Eng- 
lish, exerted  no  small  influence,  as  is  conceded  by  Rev. 
N.  Pomp,  in  his  "  Kurzgefaste  Priifungen  der  Lehre  des 


GERMAXTOWN  SETTLERS.  377 

Ewigen  Evangeliums  "  ("  Examination  of  the  Doctrine  of 
the  Everlasting  Gospel"),  published  in  1 774.  In  it  he 
states  that  the  doctrine  of  the  restitution  of  all  things 
"  was  nev^er  more  widely  spread  than  in  the  present  cen- 
tury ;  of  which  the  numerous  controversial  writings,  pro 
and  con,  that  ha\-e  appeared  in  Europe  within  the  last  fifty 
years,  are  sufficient  proof.  Yet  nowhere  has  this  doctrine 
been  more  successful  and  made  greater  progress  than  here 
in  Pennsylvania.  In  Europe  the  industry  of  many  learned 
and  godly  men  has  thrown  insuperable  obstacles  in  its 
way  ;  but  here  the  stream  has  been  allowed  free  course, 
and  the  fire  has  burned  as  it  would.  There  were  already 
many  copies  of  the  *  Everlasting  Gospel,'  which,  not  being 
privileged  in  Germany,  were  purchased  at  a  cheap  rate  by 
money-making  people,  and  brought  here ;  and  they  have 
also  been  industriously  scattered  by  the  press.  The  charm- 
ing title,  '  The  Everlasting  Gospel,'  induced  many  ignorant 
people  to  buy  the  book,  and  the  doctrine  it  inculcates  in- 
clined many  to  believe." 

Four  years  before  receiving  from  the  king  of  England 
the  grant  of  lands  in  the  New  World,  William  Penn  made 
a  visit  to  Holland  and  Germany  as  a  Quaker  preacher. 
The  details  of  his  trip  were  confided  to  his  private  diary, 
but  a  copy  of  portions,  if  not  the  whole,  came  into  the 
hands  of  the  Countess  of  Conway — of  whom  we  have 
spoken  in  chapter  ii. — and  after  her  death  the  consent  of 
the  author  was  obtained  for  its  publication.  At  P^ rank- 
fort  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Johanna  Eleonora  von 
Merlau,  afterward  the  wife  of  Petersen  (as  see  chapter  ii.), 
and  at  her  residence  held  nearly  all  his  meetings.  Nine 
years  later.  Miss  Von  Merlau,  with  nine  others,  formed  an 
association  for  the  purchase  of  twenty- five  thousand  acres 
of  land  in  Pennsylvania  and  the  encouragement  of  emi- 
gration thereto.     The  sympathy  of  several  of  the  company 


378  THE    UNIVERSAI.ISTS.  [Chap.  hi. 

with  the  \-iews  of  Miss  Von  Merlau  gi\'e  a  hint  of  the  source 
of  the  Universahst  opinions  of  the  emigrants  who  brought 
with  them  the  books  before  named. ^ 

The  German  Baptists,  commonly  called  Dunkers,  and 
originating,  as  we  have  seen  (chapter  ii.),  at  Schvvarzenau 
in  1 708,  came  in  a  body  to  America  in  i  7 19,  and  originally 
settled  in  Pennsylvania.  They  were  from  the  first  believers 
in  universal  restoration,  but  have,  in  the  main,  held  it  pri- 
vately. In  1725  a  division  occurred  in  their  ranks  on  the 
Sabbath  question,  Conrad  Beissel,  the  leader  of  the  seces- 
sion, insisting  on  the  observance  of  the  seventh  day.  Under 
his  lead  they  established  a  semi-monastic  establishment  at 
Ephrata,  Pa.  Here,  in  1740,  they  began  a  Sunday-school, 
the  earliest,  probably,  in  America.  Both  branches  of  the 
Dunkers  published  and  preached  universal  restoration. 
They  objected  to  being  called  Universalists,  but  did  not 
hesitate  to  say  that  they  believed  in  the  restoration  of  all 
souls.  Later  they  became  reticent  in  regard  to  destiny, 
and  as  late  as  1793  one  of  their  number  published  a  pam- 
phlet in  which  he  severely  censures  his  brethren  for  not 
giving  the  doctrine  greater  publicity,  asserting  that  "  the 
German  Baptists  all  believe  it." 

Some  of  the  early  Moravians,  settling  here  in  1735,  were 
believers  in  Universalism.  Peter  Bohler,  their  first  pastor 
at  Bethlehem,  Pa.,  and  afterward  made  Bishop  of  America, 
next  in  rank  .to  Count  Zinzendorf,  their  leader,  was  out- 
spoken in  its  favor.  Whitefield,  in  a  letter  to  John  Wesley 
in  1740,  remonstrating  against  the  Arminian  views  of  the 
latter,  warns  him  to  beware  lest  he  land  at  last  with  Peter 
Bohler,  who  had  "  lately  confessed  in  a  letter  '  that  all  the 
damned  souls  would  hereafter  be  brought  out  of  hell.'  " 
Israel  Acrelius  gives  an  account  of  his  visit  to  Belhlehem 

1   See  "  ^^'illian1    I'ciin's  'l"i".T\els  in  Ildlland   nml   (Icrmanv,""  Iiy  Professor 
Seidcnstickcr,  in  "  'J'lie  l'cnns\  Ivania  ?Nlai;a/ine,"  vol.  ii.,  pp.  237  ff.,  1878. 


EPISCOPAL/A  AS.  379 

in  1754,  and  there  finding  Universalists.^  He  made  the 
acquaintance  of  "  Mr.  Ritz,"  one  of  the  preachers.  This 
man  was  a  Dane,  his  name  as  written  in  that  language 
being  Matthew  Reuz,  which  he  afterward  anglicized  into 
Rights,  but  his  contemporaries  spelled  it  Wright.  He  was 
a  Universalist  from  his  early  youth.  While  residing  at 
Bethlehem  he  was  sent  out  as  a  missionary  to  the  Sw'edish 
settlers  on  the  Delaware,  frequently  preaching  at  Cohan- 
sey,  Penn's  Neck,  and  Pile's  Grove,  N.  J.  To  his  efforts 
it  was  largely  due,  no  doubt,  that  Universalist  churches 
were  organized  in  those  localities  as  early  as  i  789,  if  not 
earlier. 

Universalism  was  also  advocated  in  Episcopalian  pulpits. 
In  1759  it  was  preached  and  defended  by  Rev.  Richard 
Clarke,  rector  of  St.  Philip's  Church,  Charleston,  S.  C. 
Ramsay,  in  his  "  History  of  South  Carolina,"  .speaks  of 
Clarke  as  "  better  known  as  a  theologian  beyond  the 
limits  of  America,  than  any  other  inhabitant  of  Carolina." 
Dalcho  ("  Historical  Account  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  of  South  Carolina")  says  that  Mr.  Clarke  "was  a 
Universalist,  and  appears  to  have  been  tinctured  with  the 
doctrines  of  Jacob  Boehmen."  The  most  of  his  mini.stry 
was  in  luigland,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death  the  "  Univer- 
salist Theological  Magazine,"  London,  said:  "P\^r  nearly 
fifty  years  he  maintained,  both  by  preaching  and  writing, 
the  doctrine  of  universal  restoration." 

Rev.  Robert  Yancey,  settled  in  Loui.sa  County,  Va., 
announced,  not  long  before  his  death,  and  in  anticipation 
of  it — being  cut  off  by  consumption  in  1774.  while  yet  a 
young  man — that  he  was  conxinced  that  the  l^ible  taught 
universal  salvation,  and  that  he  would  preach  a  discourse 
in  defense  of  it.  Three  editions  of  the  sermon  were  pub- 
lished. 

1   "  A  History  of  New  Sweden,"  ri>il:i(leli)1ii.'\  edition,  1S74,  pp.  40S  fT. 


380  THE    UNIVEKSALISTS.  [Chap,  hi. 

Rev.  Jacob  Duchc,  first  chaplain  to  Congress,  and  rec- 
tor of  Christ  Church  and  St.  Peter's  in  Philadelphia,  was 
a  personal  friend  of  Rev.  John  Murray,  and  in  a  volume  of 
sermons,  now  scarce,  speaks  of  the  atonement,  satisfaction, 
and  redemption  of  Christ  as  that  "all-conquering  meekness 
which  must  finally  extinguish  all  that  is  evil  in  the  whole 
system  of  things,  and  leave  not  one  single  enemy  to  God 
and  goodness  unsubdued." 

Rev.  Dr.  William  Smith,  principal  and  founder  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania,  and  for  many  years  president 
of  the  General  Convention  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  was 
also  a  personal  friend  of  Murray's  and  an  attendant  on 
his  services  when  the  latter  preached  in  Philadelphia  in 
the  summer  of  1790.^  He  was  one  of  the  most  influential 
churchmen  in  the  reorganization  of  the  Episcopal  Church 
after  political  independence  was  won.  As  chairman  of  the 
committee  to  revise  the  Prayer-Book  and  adapt  it  to  the 
changed  circumstances  of  the  country,  he  had  the  principal 
agency  in  its  arrangement.-  Two  passages  in  that  book 
are  significant.  The  first,  the  omission  of  the  Nicene  and 
the  Athanasian  Creeds,  and  the  elimination  of  the  clause  in 
the  so-called  Apostles'  Creed  expressing  the  belief  in  the 
descent  of  Christ  into  hell.  On  the  ground  that  this  might 
be  construed  into  belief  in  the  existence  of  a  hell  of  tor- 
ment and  that  Christ  went  down  into  that  hell,  they  struck 
it  out.  When  this  change  was  objected  to  by  the  English 
bishops,  whose  good  offices  in  the  consecration  of  bishops 
for  the  United  States  were  desired,  it  was  replaced,  but  on 
condition  that  any  church  so  desiring  might  substitute  the 
words,  "  he  went  into  the  place  of  departed  spirits."  The 
English  bishops  also  desired  the  restoration  of  the  Nicene 

1  Letters  of  Mrs.  Murray  in  the  author's  possession. 

2  "  Annals  of  tlie  American   Pulpit,"  by  William  Sprague,  D.D.,  vol.  v., 
p.  160.      McClintock  and  Strong's  Cyclopa'dia,  vol.  viii.,  p.  674. 


KPISCOPA  UA  A 'S.  3  8 1 

and  the  Athanasian  Creeds.  The  former  was  inserted, 
but  the  latter  was  refused  a  place. ^ 

A  second  innovation  was  in  a  significant  change  in  the 
seventeenth  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  concerning  "  Pre- 
destination and  Election."  The  original  article  begins: 
"  Predestination  to  life  is  the  eternal  purpose  of  God, 
whereby  (before  the  foundations  of  the  world  were  laid) 
he  hath  constantly  decreed  by  his  counsel,  secret  to  us,  to 
deliver  from  curse  and  damnation  those  whom  he  hath 
chosen  in  Christ,"  etc.  In  place  of  this  was  inserted  the 
following :  "  Predestination  to  life,  with  respect  to  every 
man's  salvation,  is  the  everlasting  purpose  of  God,"  etc. 
The  original  wording  had  been  the  occasion  of  many  con- 
troversies both  in  England  and  America,  according  as  the 
disputants  discussed  it  as  Calvinists  or  as  Arminians.  Dr. 
Smith  cut  the  knot  by  making  the  article  an  unambiguous 
declaration  of  Universalism.  Thus  it  stood  until  1801, 
when  the  convention,  in  session  at  Trenton,  N.  J.,  restored 
the  original.- 

Rev.  John  Tyler,  who  became  rector  of  Christ's  Church 
in  Norwich,  Conn.,  in  i  769,  and  so  remained  until  his  death, 
which  occurred  fifty-four  years  later,  was  an  advocate  of 
Universalism,  both  with  voice  and  pen.  He  preached 
and  published  six  sermons  in  its  defense,  the  first  edition 
appearing  anonymously  in  1798.  Five  editions  in  all  have 
been  published.  He  advocated  it  on  Murray's  Rellyan 
theory.  He  came  into  these  views  as  early  as  1782.  In 
consequence  of  his  making,  as  did  Kelly  and  Murray,  a 
distinction  between  salvation  and  redemption,  he  was  often 
misunderstood  and  was  sometimes  accused  of  denying  the 
sentiments  taught  in  his  book ;  but  he  retained  his  Uni- 
versalist  views  until  the  close  of  life.     Rev.  Samuel  Peters, 

1  "Journal  of  the  Convention,"  Oct()l)er  lo,   ii,   1786,  p.  42. 

2  //>i(/.,  September  8-12,  1801,  p.  206. 


382  THE    UNn-RRSALISTS.  [Chap.  hi. 

"  having  heard  that  several  of  the  Episcopal  clergy  in  Con- 
necticut, his  nuich-esteemed  friends  and  fellow-laborers  in 
the  Lord,  had  joined  with  Mr.  Tyler,"  printed  "  A  Letter 
to  the  Rev.  John  Tyler,  A.M.,  Concerning  the  Possibility 
of  Eternal  Punishments,  and  the  Improbability  of  Univer- 
sal Salvation,"  that  his  endangered  brethren  might  also 
have  the  advantage  of  it. 

Universalist  views  also  gained  a  foothold  among  the 
Congregationalists.  Dr.  Charles  Chauncy,  ordained  pas- 
tor of  the  P^irst  Church,  Boston,  in  1727,  became  a  believer 
in  Universalism  several  years  before  publicly  avowing  his 
con\-ictions,  though  he  expressed  himself  freely  to  his 
friends,  and  submitted  to  them  his  writings  on  the  sub- 
ject. Two  defenses  of  the  doctrine  were  published  anony- 
mously. Of  one,  Rev.  Dr.  John  Clarke,  his  colleague,  said 
in  a  note  to  his  sermon  at  the  fuueral  of  Dr.  Chauncy,  in 
1787  :  ■"  Of  the  numerous  productions  of  Dr.  Chauncy,  the 
most  labored,  and  in  his  opinion  the  most  valuable,  is  a 
work  entitled  '  The  Salvation  of  All  Men,'  published  in 
London,  A.D.  1784.  This  was  begun  early  in  life,  often 
reviewed,  and  completed  at  a  time  when  the  mental  powers 
are  most  vigorous.  Before  its  publication  it  underwent  a 
severe  examination  from  those  whose  theological  and  criti- 
cal knowledge  qualified  them  to  judge  of  such  a  work. 
Many  esteemed  it  a  valuable  acquisition  to  the  religious 
world.  And  all  bestowed  the  highest  encomiums  upon 
the  learning  and  ingenuity  of  the  author."  As  early  as 
1768,  in  a  letter  to  Rev.  Dr.  Ezra  Stiles,  he  speaks  of  hav- 
ing put  the  materials  of  the  work  together,  and  that  "  they 
have  laid  by  in  a  finished  quarto  volume  for  years.  This 
is  written  with  too  much  freedom  to  admit  of  a  publication 
in  this  country.  ...  I  question  whether  it  will  ever  see 
the  light  till  after  my  death,  and  I  am  not  yet  determined 
whether  to  permit  its  being  printed,  or  to  order  its  being 


CONG  REGA'IION A  LISTS.  \  383 

committed  to  the  ilamcs.      It  is  a  work   tiiat  has  cost  me 
much  thought  aiul  a  great  deal  of  hard  labor." ^ 

In  1782  Dr.  Chauncy  published  an  anonymous  pamphlet 
in  Boston,  entitled  "  Salvation  for  All  Men."  It  contains 
little  except  extracts  from  the  writings  of  English  Univer- 
salists,  and  was  publishetl,  as  its  full  title  announces,  to 
make  known  what  has  been  said  in  favor  of  the  subject 
by  the  "  pious  and  learned  men  who  have  purposely  writ 
upon  it."  If  this  pamplilct  was  published  witli  a  view  to 
ascertaining"  how  the  larger  work  would  be  received,  as 
seems  probable,  the  author  soon  found  out,  as  it  was 
warmly  attacked  in  responsive  pamphlets  by  Rev.  Messrs. 
Joseph  I'xkley,  Samuel  Mather,  Timothy  Allen,  Samuel 
Hopkins,  William  Gordon,  and  Peter  Thacher.  The  last 
avows  that  he  was  imi^elled  to  his  work  by  his  "  alarm  at 
the  progress  of  the  errors  which  he  attempts  to  refute,  and 
at  the  patronage  afforded  them  by  some  distinguished  char- 
acters in  our  theological  v^-orld."  Sc'unuel  Mather  dwells 
at  great  length  on  the  significance  of  the  New  Testament 
words  "everlasting"  and  "forever,"  arguing  that  they 
denote  absolute  endlessness.  Rev.  Dr.  John  Clarke  made 
a  startling  reply  in  a  published  "  Letter  to  Dr.  Mather." 
"  How  could  you,"  he  wrote,  "  pretend  to  argue  the  end- 
less punishment  of  the  wicked  from  the  application  of  the 
Hebrew  word  gnolaju,  or  the  Greek  aionios,  when  you  have 
repeatedly  said  in  private  conversation  it  could  be  inferred 
from  neither?  A  minister  ought  not  to  have  one  set  of 
opinions  for  the  closet,  and  another  for  the  public  view. 
What  he  asserts  among  his  friends  he  ought  to  maintain 
openly,  or,  at  least,  he  ought  not  to  contradict,  while  there 
are  any  alive  to  detect  his  indiscretion.  You  have  treated 
an  opponent  very  unfairly,  to  offer  him  arguments  which 

1  "  Collections  of  tlio  Mns-^nclnisetts  Historical  Society,"  first  series,  vol.  x., 
J).  165,  iiSog. 


384  THE    UXI]-ERSA LISTS.  [CuAr.  in. 

you  knoiv  have  no  force  in  them,  and  which  you  have  re- 
jected in  private  conversation." 

Rev.  Jonathan  Mayhew,  probably  more  influential  than 
any  other  preacher  in  America  in  producing  the  War  for 
Independence,  and  characterized  by  Bancroft  as  "  the  bold- 
est and  most  fervid  heart  in  New  England,"  published  two 
Thanksgiving  sermons,  in  1762,  in  which  he  declares  that 
although  there  are  "  some  things  of  a  dark  and  gloomy 
appearance  in  the  world  when  considered  by  themselves," 
yet  when  we  consider  the  purpose  of  Christ's  mission,  and 
"  that  there  is  a  certain  restitution  of  all  things,  spoken  by 
the  mouth  of  all  the  holy  prophets  since  the  world  began, 
.   .   .   light  and  comfort  rise  out  of  darkness  and  sorrow." 

Rev.  Dr.  Jeremy  Belknap,  pastor  of  the  Federal  Street 
Congregational  Church,  Boston,  and  one  of  the  founders 
of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  has  left  an  avowal 
of  his  belief  in  Universalism.  His  correspondence  with 
Ebenezer  Hazard,  of  Philadelphia,  has  been  published  by 
the  Historical  Society.  In  it  Hazard  acknowledges  receipt 
of  a  copy  of  Dr.  Chauncy's  pamphlet  in  1782,  inquires 
who  is  the  author,  and  adds:  "  If  it  is  unscriptural,  I  am 
too  ignorant  to  be  able  to  see  it.  I  think,  however,  it 
does  honor  to  the  mercy  of  the  Deity,  without  doing  in- 
jury to  divine  justice."  Dr.  Belknap  replies:  "The  design 
of  emitting  this  piece  was  good,  but  I  am  not  altogether 
pleased  with  its  execution,  because  it  seems  to  be  an  at- 
tempt to  recommend  the  doctrine  by  the  force  of  human 
authority.  .  .  .  However,  the  truth  of  the  case  is  this :  the 
doctrine  of  universal  restitution  has  long  been  kept  as  a 
secret  among  learned  men.  Murray  has  published  some 
undeniable  truths  concerning  it,  mixed  with  a  jargon  of 
absurdity  ;  and  one  Winchester  among  you  has  followed 
his  example.  .  .  .  As  to  the  doctrine  itself,  of  which  you 
desire  my  opinion,  I  frankly  own  to  you  that  I  have  for 


CONG  KEG. I  T J  OX  A  LIS  7  S.  385 

several  years  been  growing  in  my  acquaintance  with  it  and 
my  regard  for  it.  I  wished  it  might  be  true  long  before 
I  saw  any  just  reason  to  conclude  it  was  so.  .  .  .  But  at 
present  I  do  not  see  how  the  doctrine  can  be  disproved,  if 
the  Scripture  be  allowed  to  speak  for  itself,  and  the  expres- 
sions therein  used  be  understood  in  their  natural  sense, 
without  any  systematical  or  synodical  comments." 

Of  Rev.  Dr.  Joseph  Huntington,  pastor  of  the  First 
Church,  Coventry,  Conn.,  from  1763  until  his  death,  1794, 
Dr.  Sprague  thus  speaks  at  the  close  of  a  lengthy  sketch 
of  his  life  and  labors:  "  The  most  remarkable  circumstance 
in  Dr.  Huntington's  history  was  not  known  until  after  his 
death.  Among  his  papers  was  found  a  manuscript  \-olume 
entitled  '  Calvinism  Improved,'  which  contains  a  \'igorous 
defense  of  the  doctrine  of  universal  salvation.  This  vol- 
ume was  afterward  published,  though  it  had  but  a  limited 
circulation — much  of  the  greater  part  of  the  edition  hav- 
ing been  consigned  to  the  flames  by  one  of  his  daugh- 
ters, a  lady  of  rare  excellence,  who  loved  simple  CaK'inism 
better  than  '  Calvinism  Improved,'  and  whose  regard  for 
orthodoxy  seems  to  have  been  an  overmatch  even  for  her 
filial  reverence.  The  system  inculcated  in  this  volume 
is,  however,  very  unlike  that  which  now  ordinarily  passes 
under  the  name  of  Universalism.  It  recognizes  most  of 
the  features  of  old-fashioned  Calvinism,  but  maintains  that 
the  atonement  of  Christ  was  commensurate,  not  only  in  its 
nature,  but  in  its  design,  with  the  sins  of  the  whole  human 
family.  Dr.  Huntington  had  not  been  generally  supposed 
to  hold  any  other  than  the  commonly  recei\-ed  orthodox 
views  on  this  subject,  until  this  manuscript  was  found; 
though  some  of  his  brethren  afterward  recollected  to  have 
heard  remarks  from  him,  which,  in  the  review,  seemed  of 
a  somewhat  dubious  character.  It  has  been  suggested  that 
the  book  might  have  been  written  as  a  mere  trial  of  polemic 


386  THE    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  hi. 

skill ;  but  the  preface  puts  it  beyond  a  doubt  that  it  con- 
tains his  deliberate  and  matured  convictions."^ 

Near  the  close  of  the  century  five  Congregationalist 
clergymen  in  four  adjoining  towns  in  western  New  Hamp- 
shire— viz.,  Thomas  Fessenden  of  Walpole,  Jacob  Mann 
of  Alstead,  his  successor,  Samuel  Mead,  Dan  Foster  of 
Charlestown,  and  Mr.  Taft  of  Langdon — became  believers 
in  Universalism,  and,  with  the  exception  of  Fessenden, 
were  dismissed  for  their  heresy.  About  the  same  time 
Rev.  Samuel  Whiting,  of  Rockingham,  Vt.,  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  Connecticut  River  from  Charlestown,  became 
a  Universalist,  and  was  dismissed  for  that  reason. 

To  some  extent  Universalism  also  disturbed  the  Pres- 
byterian churches.  In  i  783  the  "  First  Presbytery  of  the 
Eastward  "  published  a  volume  against  Dr.  Chauncy's 
pamphlet,  entitled  '"'  Bath  Kol :  A  Voice  from  the  Wilder- 
ness. Being  an  Humble  Attempt  to  Support  the  Sinking 
Truths  of  God  against  Some  of  the  Principal  Errors  Rag- 
ing at  this  Time."  The  preface  sets  forth  that  the  "low 
state  of  religion  and  the  awful  floods  of  error  induced  the 
'  First  Presbytery  of  the  Eastward,'  in  session  at  Windham 
[Conn.],  May  21,  1783,  to  appoint  'a  committee  to  bring 
in  a  draught  of  a  testimony  '  against  these  evils ;  and  they 
were  especially  directed  to  begin  with  Origenism  (or  the 
doctrine  of  universal  salvation),  as  lying  nearest  the  root 
of  all  the  impiety  and  wickedness  now  leading  the  fashion 
in  places  of  public  resort."  Of  a  total  of  360  pages  in 
this  volume,  222  are  devoted  to  Universalism.  Alluding 
to  John  Murray  as  a  zealous  disciple  of  the  Rellys,  the 
writer  adds:  "It  is  true  that  the  Socinian  form  of  this 
opinion  had  stolen  a  passage  into  this  country  long  before 
the  arri\-al  of  the  itinerant  last  mentioned.  Some  church 
records,  within  forty  miles  of  Boston,  can  show  that  it  was 
1  "  Annals  of  the  American  Pulpit,"  vol.  i.,  p.  604. 


n^H'.sn  J  ■  7  7;a'/.  /  xs.  387 

not  first  imported  by  him.  And  it  is  soundly  asserted  by 
many  that  nothing  but  a  stock  of  Dr.  Burnet's  honesty  has 
prevented  its  being  fairly  opened  up  to  the  world,  under 
the  sanction  of  the  name  of  another  doctor,  thirty  years 
ago.  Wiiether  the  success  of  the  traveler  mentioned  above 
awakened  a  jealousy  that  the  honor  of  so  important  a  dis- 
covery in  theology  should  be  carried  ofT  by  an  illiterate 
stranger,  or  whether  the  great  fertility  of  the  present  aera 
in  the  invention  of  improvements  in  all  departments  of 
learning  and  science  stung  the  divines  now  on  the  stage 
to  emulation,  we  list  not  to  inquire.  One  thing  is  become 
certain,  that  no  sooner  did  the  author  of  a  pamphlet  called 
'  Salvation  for  All  Men  '  give  the  word,  than  great  was  the 
multitude  of  the  preachers  that  suddenly  rose  up  in  almost 
every  quarter,  and  published  it.  And,  if  the  best  accounts 
we  can  obtain  deser\'e  credit,  this  doctrine  rings  from  so 
many  pulpits  through  the  land  already,  that  every  minister 
of  the  gospel  who  does  not  wish  it  to  become  universally 
taught  and  recei\-ed  is  now  called  on,  as  he  tenders  the 
cause  of  God  and  the  best  interests  of  souls,  to  stand  forth 
and  openly  disavow  it." 

In  1787  the  Synod  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia  rec- 
ommended to  all  their  Presbyteries  and  members  to  be 
watchful  and  to  guard  against  the  introduction  of  Univer- 
salism  among  their  people.  In  i  792  the  General  Assembly 
decided,  on  a  question  raised  by  the  Synod  of  the  Carolinas, 
that  Universalists  be  not  admitted  to  the  sealing  ordinances 
of  the  gospel ;  and  on  an  attempt  to  reopen  the  question 
in  1794,  "unanimously  agreed  to  adhere  to  its  aforesaid 
decision." 


CHAPTER    IV. 

JOHN      MURRAY. 

'  Organized  Universalism,  the  creation  and  establish- 
ment of  the  UniversaHst  Church,  had  its  chief,  but  not  ex- 
clusive, incitement  in  the  ministry  of  Rev.  John  Murray, 
who,  born  in  Alton,  England,  December  lO  (O.  S.),  1741, 
landed  in  America  in  the  latter  part  of  September,  1770.  / 
Although  then  a  young  man,  he  had  passed  through  try- 
ing experiences,  and  had  come  to  the  New  World  hoping 
to  lose  himself  in  its  wilds  and  pass  the  remainder  of  his 
days  in  obscurity.  His  father  was  an  Episcopalian  and| 
his  mother  a  Presbyterian,  and  both  high  Calvinists.  His' 
early  home-life  was  clouded  by  great  religious  severity ; 
his  father,  he  says,  "  seldom  indulging  in  a  smile,"  and 
teaching  him  "  that  for  any  individual,  not  the  elect  of 
God,  to  say  of  God,  or  to  God,  '  Our  Father,'  was  noth- 
ing better  than  blasphemy."  All  his  early  surroundings 
impressed  him  with  "a  terror  of -religion."  The  coming 
of  the  Methodists  into  his  neighborhood  gave  him  new 
hope,  and  as  he  listened  to  their  fervid  preaching  he  began 
to  find  delight  in  religious  themes  and  exercises.  John 
Wesley  gave  him  marked  notice  by  appointing  him  "  class- 
leader  of  forty  boys,"  and  soon  after  this  he  began  to 
preach.  He  found  himself,  however,  sorely  haunted  by 
the  Calvinism  which  his  parents  championed ;  and  shortly 
after  his  father's  death,  having  opportunity  to  listen  to  the 
preaching  of  Whitefield,  his  early  opinions  were  reinforced 
by  what  he  regarded  as  the  preacher's  demonstrations  of 


JOIIA'  MURRAY.  389 

their  truth.  He  was  at  this  time  residing  with  his  mother 
in  Ireland.  Soon  after  becoming  a  preacher  in  Wesley's 
connection,  and  while  perplexed  with  the  questions  of  pre- 
destination and  freewill,  he  went  to  London,  where,  for  a 
while,  he  led  a  gay,  but  not  immoral,  life ;  but  soon  con- 
necting himself  with  Whitefield's  society,  he  became  zeal- 
ously interested  in  all  that  tended  to  its  advancement. 

Before  long  he  was  asked  to  interview  and  reclaim 
to  the  Whitefield  congregation  a  young  woman  who  had 
avowed  herself  a  Universalist,  and  to  read  and  criticise  a 
refutation  which  a  brother  clergyman  had  written,  of  a 
book  put  forth  by  Rev.  James  Relly,  who,  from  being  a 
preacher  in  Whitefield's  connection,  had  become  a  preacher 
of  Universalism.  He  confesses'  himself  baffled  and  vexed 
by  the  young  woman's  observations ;  is  impressed  with  the 
want  of  candor  of  the  reviewer  of  the  book,  and  is  greatly 
distressed  that  no  better  showing  against  Mr.  Kelly's  argu- 
ments is  made.  Not  many  days  pass  before  the  book  itself 
falls  into  his  hands.  Its  arguments  stagger  him,  and  he 
desires  to  hear  its  author  preach.  The  privilege  is  soon 
granted,  and  from  the  meeting  he  goes  to  his  closet  and 
begins  anew  the  study  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  The  doc- 
trine of  election  becomes  more  and  more  clear  and  satis- 
fying to  him,  hw\.  the  doctrine  of  reprobation  .seems  to 
be  wholly  without  foundation.  Cited  to  appear  before 
Mr.  Whitefield's  society,  he  is  tried  and  excommunicated. 
Former  friends  become  persecutors,  death  robs  him  of  liis 
wife,  and,  well-nigh  broken-hearted,  he  comes  to  the  New 
World,  determined,  he  says,  "  to  close  my  life  in  solitude, 
in  the  most  complete  retirement." 

His  experiences  on  landing  on  the  shore  of  New  Jersey, 
by  reason  of  accident  to  the  ship  which  brought  him  over; 
his  interview  with  Thomas  Porter,  who  declared  that  he 
knew  as  soon  as  he  saw  the  ship  that  it  had  on  board  the 


390  THE    UNI  VERSA  LISTS.  [Chap.  iv. 

preacher  for  whom  he  had  built  a  house  of  worship  and 
for  whose  coming  he  had  long  been  waiting;  and  his  final 
consent  to  preach — border  on  the  marvelous,  but  are  well 
authenticated.^     From    the    date   of    this    first   sermon    in  \ 
America,   September   30,  1770,  until  he  was  made  help- 
less by  paralysis  in  October,  1809 — although  he  remained  '1 
on  earth  until  September,  1815 — he  gave  himself  wholly/ 
to  the  ministry,  making  his  home  for  the  most  part  with 
Thomas  Porter,  at  Good  Luck,  N.  J.,  and  itinerating  from 
New  Hampshire  to  Virginia,  until  December,  1774,  when  |. 
he  settled  in  Gloucester,  Mass.,  drawn  there  by  the  fact 
that  several  of  its  residents  had,  by  reading  the  book  of 
Relly's  which  first  drew  his  attention  to  enlarged  views  of 
the  divine  economy,  become  Universalists.      His  mission  " 
in  this  land,  up  to  that  time,  had  not  been  a  constructive 
one.     The  thought  of  creating  a  sect,  or  even  of  organiz- 
ing a  society  or  church  of  believers  in  Christianity  as  he 
interpreted  it,  had  probably  never  entered  his  mind. 

It  is  notorious  that  in  many  places  where  he  preached 
the  legitimate  inferences  from  the  premises  in  his  discourses 
were  not  fully  apprehended  either  by  the  preachers  or  peo- 
ple who  flocked  to  hear  him.  No  doubt  he  was  honest 
and  sincere  in  adopting  this  course,  since  he  justified  it  in 
after  years,  and  on  the  occasion  of  his  visit  to  England,  in 
1788,  repeated  it  there;  but  it  involved  him  in  many  diffi- 
culties, created  suspicion,  and  in  some  instances  great  in- 
dignation. This  was  true  in  Providence,  Newport,  Boston, 
and  during  the  first  of  his  preaching  in  Gloucester.  In 
Portsmouth,  N.  H.,  he  was  invited  to  settle  over  an  estab- 
lished church  and  congregation,  under  the  impression  that 
he  was  a  Calvinist.      In  Newburyport  his  patrons,  on  his 

1  For  this  and  all  facts  cited  in  the  career  of  Murray  (not  noted  as  obtainetl 
elsewhere),  see  "  Life  of  Rev.  John  Murray"  (written  liy  himself  to  1774, 
and  continued  by  his  wife  to  his  death),  Boston  edition,  1869. 


JOHN  MURRAY.  391 

first  visit,  were  the  personal  friends  and  adherents  of  Rev. 
George  Whitefield,  who  had  died  in  that  town  the  day 
Mr.  Murray  preached  iiis  first  sermon  in  America;  and  as 
Mr.  Murray  is  said  to  have  borne  a  strong  resemblance  to 
that  popular  divine,  in  the  animation  of  his  style  and  the 
fresh  and  copious  power  of  his  illustrations,  it  is  proba- 
ble that  they  regarded  him  as  in  some  sort  a  successor 
to  Whitefield.  Certainly  they  did  not  understand  that 
he  was  a  Universalist,  for,  concerning  his  second  visit  to 
Newburyport  and  Portsmouth,  Mrs.  Murray  has  written : 
"  Those  who  adhered  to  him  in  those  towns,  having  ascer- 
tained that  he  absolutely  believed  in  the  final  restitution 
of  all  things,  united  with  the  many  in  the  most  unquali- 
fied censure." 

His  own  statement  of  this,  to  say  the  least,  disastrous 
procedure  and  his  justification  or  approval  of  it,  he  thus 
records :  "  The  grace,  union,  and  membership,  upon  which 
I  expatiated,  were  admitted  by  every  Calvinist,  but  ad- 
mitted only  for  the  elect;  and  when  I  repeated  tjiose  glo- 
rious texts  of  Scripture  which  indisputably  proclaim  the 
redemption  of  the  lost  world,  as  I  did  not  expressly  say, 
'  My  brethren,  I  receive  these  texts  in  the  unlimited  sense 
in  which  they  are  given,'  they  were  not  apprised  that  I  did 
not  read  them  with  the  same  contracted  views  to  which 
they  had  been  accustomed.  When  they  became  assured 
of  the  magnitude  and  unbounded  result  which  I  ascribed 
to  the  birth,  life,  and  death  of  the  Redeemer,  their  doors 
were  fast  closed  against  me.  For  myself,  I  was  in  unison 
with  Mr.  Relly,  who  supposed  that  the  gradual  dawn  of 
light  would  eventually  prove  more  beneficial  to  mankind 
than  the  sudden  burst  of  meridian  day.  Thus  I  was 
contented  with  proclaiming  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  in 
Scripture  language  only — leaving  to  my  hearers  deduc- 
tions, comments,  and  applications." 


392  THE    UNIVERSA LISTS.  [Chap.  iv. 

From  the  time  of  making  his  residence  in  Gloucester, 
with  the  exception,  already  noted,  of  his  visit  to  England, 
Mr.  Murray  adopted  a  different  policy.  He  became  posi- 
tive and  aggressive,  in  earnest,  and  zealous  for  the  preva- 
lence of  the  theology  which  he  regarded  as  the  true  in- 
terpretation of  the  gospel.  That  theology  may  be  thus 
briefly  described :  It  was  trinitarian  in  its  idea  of  God,  and 
of  Christ's  nature  and  relation  to  God.  It  was  Calvinistic 
in  its  theory  of  the  sin  of  Adam  as  putting  all  souls  out 
of  harmony  with  God ;  in  its  doctrine  of  vicarious  atone- 
ment; in  the  justice  of  eternal  suffering  for  all  men,  and 
that  Christ  had  borne  that  suffering  in  the  place  of  all  who 
should  ever  be  saved.  It  differed  from  Calvinism  in  its 
theory  of  the  entire  human  race  in  its  relations  to  Christ, 
predicating  of  all  souls  what  Calvinism  predicated  of  the ' 
elect  only,  their  indissoluble  union  with  Christ.  Relly, 
whose  disciple  Mr.  Murray  was,  had,  as  a  Calvinist,  worked 
out  a  theory  which  seemed  to  him  to  be  a  satisfactory 
reason  why  a  transfer  of  human  sin  and  penalty  to  Christ 
could  be  consistent  with  the  divine  law  that  the  sinner 
and  not  the  innocent  should  suffer  punishment.  This 
theory  was  that  there  is  such  a  real  and  thorough  union  of 
Christ  with  the  human  race  as  made  their  acts  his  and  his 
theirs.  All  men,  he  held,  were  really  in  Adam,  and  sinned 
in  him,  not  by  a  fictitious  imputation,  but  by  actual  par- 
ticipation ;  equally  so  are  all  men  in  the  second  Adam,  "the 
head  of  every  man,"  and  he  is  as  justly  accountable  for 
what  they  do  as  is  the  head  in  the  natural  body  account- 
able for  the  deeds  of  all  the  members  united  to  that  head. 
Accordingly  Christ,  in  his  corporate  capacity,  was  truly 
guilty  of  the  offense  of  the  human  race,  and  could  be, 
as  he  actually  was,  justly  punished  for  it ;  and  the  race, 
because  of  this  union,  really  suffered  in  him  all  the  penalty 
which  he  endured,  and  thus  fully  satisfied  justice.      There 


Mi  'RRA  )  ■  '.V    THKOLOG  V.  393 

is  no  more  punishment,  therefore,  due  for  sin,  nor  any  fur- 
ther occasion  for  declaring  the  demands  of  the  law,  except 
to  make  men  feel  their  inability  to  obey,  and  thus  compel 
them  to  an  exclusive  reliance  on  Christ  the  head.  He  has 
efTected  a  complete  and  finished  justification  of  the  whole 
world.  When  man  believes  this,  he  is  freed  from  the  sense 
of  guilt,  freed  also  from  all  doubt  and  fear.  Until  he  be- 
lieves it,  he  is,  whether  in  this  world  or  in  another,  under 
the  condemnation  of  unbelief  and  darkness,  the  only  con- 
demnation now  possible  to  the  human  race. 

Those  who  in  this  life  come  to  the  belief  of  this  com- 
plete redemption  in  Christ  are,  he  taught,  the  elect,  who, 
in  consequence  of  their  belief,  are  filled  with  joy  and  peace. 
Those  who  go  out  of  this  world  in  unbelief  will  rise  to  the 
resurrection  of  damnation,  filled  with  despair  and  gloom, 
and  through  ignorance  of  God's  purpose  they  will  "  call 
on  the  mountains  to  fall  on  them  and  hide  them  from  the 
face  of  him  who  sitteth  on  the  throne";  while  the  elect, 
ha\-ing  already  come  to  the  knowledge  of  what  God's 
judgment  is,  will  be  seated  with  Christ  on  the  throne  of 
judgment.  The  Judge  will  then  make  the  final  separa- 
tion, dividing  "the  sheep,"  or  universal  human  nature,  from 
"  the  goats,"  which  are  the  fallen  angels,  and  send  the  latter 
away  "into  everlasting  fire."  Then  he  will  open  another 
book,  "  the  book  of  life,"  in  which  all  his  members,  i.e., 
universal  humanity,  are  recorded,  and  having,  like  Joseph 
of  old,  made  himself  known  to  his  ignorant,  unbelieving, 
and  terrified  brethren,  he  will  receive  them  all  into  "  the 
kingdom  prepared  for  them  before  the  foundation  of  the 
world."  1 

1  "  Life  of  Rev.  John  Murray,"  pp.  397  fF.  "  Union  ;  or,  A  Treatise  of  the 
Consanguinity  and  Affinity  between  Christ  and  I  lis  Church."  By  James  Relly. 
Providence,  R.  I.,  edition,  1782.  "  Letters  and  Sketches  of  Sermons."  By 
John  Murray.  3  vols.,  Boston,  1813.  Vol.  i.,  pp.  95,  1 14,  279  ff. ;  vol.  ii., 
pp.  222  f.,  247  f.  ;   vol.  iii.,  pp.  351  (T. 


394  ^-^^^    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chai-.  iv. 

This  very  fanciful  theory,  as  it  must  strike  us — but  not 
more  fanciful  than  was  the  then  dominant  Calvinistic  idea 
of  the  union  of  the  elect  with  Christ,  and  his  literally  pay- 
ing their  debt — John  Murray  accepted  and  preached.  I 
have  stated  it  briefly,  but  have,  I  am  confident,  given  its 
peculiarities.  And  whoever  understands  it  cannot  fail  to 
see  that  it  thoroughly  disposes  of  a  vexed  question  often 
raised  on  the  part  of  many,  both  Universalists  and  others, 
who  have  but  a  confused  notion  of  what  Murray  taught: 
Whether  or  not  he  believed  in  future  punishment?  It 
shows  that  he  believed  in  no  punishment,  present  or  future, 
to  fall  on  any  man  for  his  sins.  Severe  punishment  was 
due,  and  justice  had  exacted  it,  but  it  had  all  been  inflicted 
on  Christ,  who  is  strictly  and  fully  a  substitute  for  every 
man.  All  men,  therefore,  would,  he  taught,  on  the  score 
of  strict  justice,  be  saved  from  all  the  penal  consequences 
of  sin.  His  chief  contention  with  Winchester,  Rich,  Ballou, 
and  other  Universalists  who  taught  man's  personal  responsi- 
bility for  sin  and  the  certainty  of  personal  retribution,  was 
that  they  made  Christ's  work  of  no  account,  and  wholly 
did  away  with  the  necessity  of  his  mission  and  suff"erings ; 
and  he  was  greatly  distressed  that  they  did  not  see  and 
teach  that  Jesus  had  satisfied  all  the  claims  of  divine  jus-  . 
tice.  "  I  know,"  he  said,  "  no  persons  further  from  Chris- / 
tianity,  genuine  Christianity,  than  such  Universalists." 

As  a  preacher,  Mr.  Murray  was  an  extemporizer.  From 
such  specimens  of  his  sermons  as  he  wrote  out  after 
preaching  them,  it  is  evident  that  his  method  of  preaching 
was  mainly  either  the  combination  and  weaving  together  a 
large  number  of  passages  of  Scripture,  connected  only  by 
the  slightest  verbal  relations,  or  by  allegorizing  a  Scriptural 
incident  or  circumstance  that  supplied  him  with  hints  and 
which  he  dexterously  manipulated  into  a  whole  body  of 
divinity.      As  an  example,  take  his  discourse  on  Exodus 


INFLUENCE    ON  CALVINISM.  395 

xxviii.  2,  "And  thou  shalt  make  holy  garments  for  Aaron 
thy  brother,  for  glory  and  for  beauty."  The  argument 
which  he  makes  is,  that  Christ  is  our  high-priest,  typified 
by  Aaron  ;  that  his  garments  are  all  mankind,  for  he  clothed 
himself  with  our  nature ;  that  we  are  all  Jioly  in  him,  for 
he  is  made  unto  us  wisdom,  sanctification,  and  redemp- 
tion ;  and  finally,  that  his  garments,  or  all  mankind,  shall 
be  glorious  and  beaiitifitl.  This  strikes  us  as  a  fantastic 
treatment  of  the  Scriptures,  but  it  can  be  matched  by  many 
orthodox  sermons  in  that  day,  the  preachers  of  which  saw 
types  of  Christ  in  the  furniture  of  the  tabernacle,  the  regu- 
lations for  the  sacrifices,  and  in  the  most  minute  of  the 
Levitical  laws. 

What  was  the  influence  exerted  by  Mr.  Murray  as  a 
preacher  of  the  theological  opinions  just  described?  On 
the  Calvinism  of  America  it  was  startling  and  revolution- 
ary. The  prevailing  theory  of  the  atonement  at  that  time 
was  wliat  is  known  as  the  theory  of  Anselm,  formulated 
A.D.  1 109,  and  was  substantially  this:  sin  is  debt,  and  it 
is  absolutely  necessary  that  this  debt  should  be  paid,  i.e., 
that  the  penalty  incurred  by  the  guilt  of  sin  should  be 
suffered ;  that  this  penalty  must  be  inflicted  upon  the  sin- 
ner in  person,  unless  a  substitute  can  be  found  having  all 
the  legal  qualifications  for  his  office.  This  was  alone  real- 
ized in  Jesus  Christ,  a  divine  person  embracing  a  human 
nature.  Cotton,  Edwards,  and  Owen  held  that  the  meri- 
torious obedience  of  Christ  in  fulfilling  the  law  imputes  a 
righteousness  to  those  for  whom  the  atonement  secures  sal- 
vation, which  gives  them  a  claim  to  the  reward  of  right- 
eousness in  everlasting  Hfe.  John  Murray  showed  that 
the  Scriptures  represent  that  Christ's  death  was  for  all ; 
"  he  tasted  death  for  every  man,"  he  is  "  the  Lamb  of  God 
who  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world,"  he  "  gave  himself 
a  ransom  for  all,"  and  as  the  debt  had  been  fully  paid,  all 


396  THE    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  iv. 

men  could  justly  claim  release.  Those  who  held  to  the 
debt  and  payment  theory  could  evade  this  only  as  they 
denied  that  Christ  died  for  all.  In  this  perplexity,  Rev\ 
John  Smalley,  of  Berlin,  Conn.,  came  to  the  rescue,  preach- 
ing and  publishing  a  sermon  in  i  785  which  bears  this  title : 
"Eternal  Salvation  on  No  Account  a  Matter  of  Just  Debt; 
or,  Full  Redemption,  not  Interfering  with  Free  Grace.  A 
Sermon  Delivered  at  Wallingford,  by  Particular  Request, 
with  Special  Reference  to  the  Murrayan  Controversy."  A 
year  later  he  appeared  in  print  again,  with  this  title-page: 
"  The  Law  in  All  Respects  Satisfied  by  Our  Saviour,  in 
Regard  to  Those  Only  who  Belong  to  Him;  or.  None  but 
Believers  Saved  through  the  All-Sufficient  Satisfaction  of 
Christ.  A  second  Sermon,  Preached  at  Wallingford,  with 
a  View  to  the  Universalists." 

This  new  departure  of  Calvinism,  and  what  it  effected,  is 
.thus  stated  in  the  "  Bibliotheca  Sacra  "  for  January,  1889  : 
"  With  reference  to  the  idea  derived  by  Relly  from  Old 
School  theories  and  expressed  in  his  '  Union,'  that  salva- 
tion is  a  matter  of  necessity,  or  put  by  others  in  the  more 
sober  form,  that  it  is  a  matter  of  justice,  Smalley  proposes 
to  show  that  '  eternal  salvation  is  on  no  account  a  matter 
of  just  debt,'  and  hence  a  fortiori  no  mechanical  neces- 
sity. After  some  preliminary  statements  in  explanation 
of  the  meaning  of  justification,  he  takes  up  the  redemp- 
tion wrought  for  us  by  Christ  for  the  purpose  of  showing 
how  it  is  consistent  with  free  grace  in  justification.  He 
proceeds  to  present  a  new  theory  of  the  atonement,  which 
has  since  been  called  the  New  England  theory  [or  the 
governmental  theory],  and  which,  deriving  its  leading  idea 
from  Hugo  Grotius  [who  first  published  it  in  161  7],  teaches 
that  God,  in  exacting  punishment  for  sins,  did  not  act  as 
the  offended  party,  but  as  a  Ruler,  and  that  consequently 
the  atonement  of  Christ  was  not  the  payment  of  a  debt, 


INFLUENCE   ON  CAL17N/.SM.  397 

but  '  an  astonishing  expedient  of  wisdom  and  goodness 
that  we  transgressors  might  be  saved  and  yet  God  be  just, 
and  his  righteous  law  suffer  no  dishonor ' — a  penal  exam- 
ple making  forgiveness  consistent  with  the  authority  of  the 
government,  but  in  no  way  establishing  a  right  upon  the 
sinner's  part  to  forgiveness.  The  great  argument  of  Relly- 
anism  was  thus  refuted.  Smalley  had  stated  it  thus :  '  God 
is  obliged  in  justice  to  save  men  as  far  as  the  merit  of 
Christ  extends,  but  the  merit  of  Christ  is  sufficient  for  the 
salvation  of  all  men;  therefore  God  is  obliged  in  justice  to 
save  all  men.'  The  new  theory  removed  the  major  prem- 
ise of  this  syllogism. 

"  Universalism  was  thus  the  occasion  of  the  introduction 
into  the  world  of  the  New  England  theory  of  the  atone- 
ment. In  fact,  the  New  England  divines  could  make  no 
other  reply.  The  position  that  the  merit  of  Christ  was 
sufficient  for  the  salvation  of  all  men,  or  that  he  died  for" 
all,  seemed  too  Scriptural  to  be  denied,  and  indeed  never 
had  been  except  in  extreme  schools  of  Calvinism.  Upon 
the  old  theories  of  the  atonement,  Smalley's  predecessors 
in  New  England  had  sometimes  acknowledged  the  validity 
of  the  idea  that  the  sinner  could  claim  salvation,  or  that  it 
was  a  matter  of  justice,  as  he  proves  by  quotations  from 
Edwards  and  Hooker.  But  these  two  positions  necessi- 
tated the  scheme  of  Relly  and  Murray.  The  only  way  of 
avoiding  the  conclusions  was  to  acknowledge  the  invalidity 
of  the  premise ;  and  hence  it  was  that  all  the  next  follow- 
ing New  England  divines  employed  the  new  theory  of  the 
atonement  as  the  great  argument  against  their  Universal- 
ist  opponents."  ^ 

The  influence  of  Mr.  Murray's  preaching  in  making  con- 

1  The  fifth  of  a  series  of  papers  on  "  The  Eschatology  of  the  New  England 
Divines,"  by  Rev.  J.  II.  Foster,  Ph.D.,  professor  of  church  history  in  Ober- 
lin  Theological  Seminary. 


398  THE    UNJ\-EKSALISTS.  [Chap.  iv. 

verts  to  Universalism  is  not  easy  to  estimate.  For  the 
first  four  years  of  his  ministry  it  could  not  have  been 
extensive,  since,  as  we  have  seen,  when  his  real  views 
were  suspected  or  definitely  ascertained,  he  was  deserted 
and  censured  by  many  of  those  who  had  on  first  hearing 
him  been  his  ardent  admirers.  Within  ten  years  from  thai 
time  of  his  settlement  in  Gloucester,  seven  other  preach 
ers  of  Universalism  had  arisen  in  Americaj  and  if  we  also' 
count  Rev.  John  Tyler,  an  Episcopal  rector  in  Norwich, 
Conn.,  there  were  eight.  But  Mr.  Tyler  never  desired  to 
be  considered  other  than  an  ^Episcopalian ;  and  as  late  as 
I  798,  when  he  published  his  views,  he  preferred  not  to  be 
known  as  the  author  of  the  book  in  which  they  were  set 
forth.  Of  the  seven  openly  avowed  preachers  of  Univer- 
salism, only  one.  Rev.  Noah  Parker,  of  Portsmouth,  N.  H., 
advocated  the  Rellyan  theology.  Mr.  Parker  died  in  1787, 
•whereupon  Mr.  Murray  wrote  to  a  friend :  "  I  do  not  know 
of  a  single  preacher  in  this  countr}^,  if  I  except  Mr.  Tyler, 
of  Connecticut,  who  is  with  me  in  sentiment  respecting 
gospel  truth."  And  after  briefly  characterizing  the  views  j 
of  Mr.  Winchester,  he  added:  "I  am,  I  do  assure  you,  | 
beyond  expression  distressed." 

As  early  as  1783  Mr.  Murray,  while  on  a  visit  to  Phila- 
delphia, had  preached  in  Mr.  Winchester's  pulpit,  but  he 
records  that  "  a  greater  part  of  his  congregation  are  ene- 
mies to  me,"  i.e.,  to  his  theology.  Indeed,  I  think  I  am 
warranted  in  saying  that,  after  other  Universalist  ministers 
began  their  preaching  of  Universalism  on  other  than  the 
Rellyan  basis,  Mr.  Murray  had  no  considerable  following 
except  in  the  localities  where  he  was  personally  employed. 

The  impression,  therefore,  made  by  his  theology  on  the 
body  of   Universalist  believers  was  ephemeral.      He  was  \ 
present  at  the  organization   of  the  Association  in    1785, 
formed  for  the  purpose  of  securing  the  rights  of  Univer-    , 


IXFI.rEXCE    ox    iXJlEKSALISTS.  399 

salist  societies  in  their  legal  struggle  with  the  established 
parishes,  and  at  its  final  session  two  years  later.     He  was 
also  in  attendance  at  the  New  England  Convention  wheni 
it  was  organized  for  more  strictly  ecclesiastical  purposes 
ill  1793.  as  also  at  the  sessions  in  1795  and  1804,  but  at 
no  other  session.     At   his   last  attendance  he  was  very 
much  distressed  that  he  stood  alone  in   his  Rellyanism, 
and  greatly  disturbed  the  harmony  of  the  occasion  by  the 
manifestation  of  a  bitter  spirit  toward  those  who  held  other: 
views.      "Brother  Murray,"  wrote  Rev.  George  Richards,! 
in  a  letter  making  mention  of  that  session,  "  is  a  little  like/ 
Ishmael.      His  hand  is  against  all  the  Convention."     Mrs/ 
Murray,  in  her  continuation  of  her  husband's  "  Memoirs," 
says   that  "  in  the   last  stage   of  his   pilgrimage   he   fre- 
quently regretted  that  his  attendance  upon  this  Conven- 
tion had  not  been   more  uniform;  as  he  might  possibly,  \ 
by  his  years  and  experience,  have  met  and  obviated  the  ] 
difficulties  which  distressed  him." 

At  Mr.  Murray's  death,  Rev.  Paul  Dean,  his  colleague, 
and  Rev.  Edward  Mitchell,  of  New  York,  were  the  only 
known  advocates  of  the  Rellyan  theory.  The  former  sub- 
sequently became  a  Unitarian  preacher,  and  the  latter  held 
himself  wholly  aloof  from  the  Universalist  denomination, 
and  on  his  death  his  church  became  dormant. 

Gloucester,  Boston,  and  Philadelphia  were  probably  more  : 
influenced  by  Mr.  Murray's  views  than  were  other  locali-' 
ties.      His  labors   in   the   first   two   places  were    constant, 
and  his  intermittent  work  in  the  last  was  more  frequent 
than  elsewhere.   I^Some  form  of  organization  was  made  in ) 
these  places  and  also  in  Portsmouth,  N.  H.,  which  gave  the 
work  a  permanence  unknown  in  other  localities  where  his 
visits  were  few.      What  were  called  "  Articles  of  Associa- 
tion :  Association  of  the  Independent  Church  in  Glouces- 
ter," were  drawn  up  and  subscribed  on  the  1st  of  January, 


400  rilE    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  iv. 

1779,  by  four  men  and  eleven  women  who  had  been  sus- 
pended from  the  First  Parish  Church  in  Gloucester  "  for 
absenting  themselves  from  the  worship  and  ordinances  of 
God  in  his  house,"  and  becoming  regular  attendants  on 
the  preaching  of  Murray.  This  is  generally  regarded  as 
the  earliest  form  of  organization  by  American  Universal- 
ists.  They  called  themselves  "  a  true  independent  Church 
of  Christ  "  ;  agreed  "  to  walk  together  in  Christian  fellow- 
ship "  ;  "  as  far  as  in  us  lieth,  to  live  peaceably  with  all 
men  "  ;  "  to  receive  as  our  Minister,  that  is,  our  Servant, 
.  .  .  our  friend  and  Christian  brother,  John  Murray"; 
"  but  should  he  at  any  time  preach  any  other  gospel 
than  that  we  have  received,  we  will  not  wish  him  God- 
speed, but  consider  him  as  a  stranger."  They  further 
agreed,  since  they  recognized  the  fact  that  Mr.  Murray 
must  often  be  away  from  them,  preaching  in  other  places, 
that,  "  whether  blessed  with  the  public  preaching  of  the 
Word  or  not,"  they  would  meet  together  as  often  as  con- 
venient, for  religious  worship,  and  "  once  every  month  to  1 
hold  conference,  and  to  deliberate  on  whatever  may  tend  \ 
to  our  mutua.l  profit."  ^ 

This  instrument  seems  to  have  been  rather  a  declaration 
of  intention  to  keep  together,  than  a  form  or  mode  for  cre- 
ating an  organization.  In  the  records  it  is  neither  accom- 
panied nor  followed  by  any  minute  of  proceedings.  Nearly 
I  ,two  years  after  signing  this  agreement  the  original  signers, 
"  and  several  added  associates,  dedicated  and  took  possession 
of  a  house  of  worship,  viz.,, December  25,  1780.  Before 
this  date  they  had  held  meetings  in  private  houses,  chiefly 
"in  the  spacious  parlors  of  the  house"  of  Winthrop  Sar- 
gent. Mr.  Murray  had  been  absent  several  months  in  the 
army  as  chaplain  of  the  Rhode  Island  Brigade,  and  fre- 
quently  on   extensive   preaching-tours.     But   their  num- 


TKOUBLE   IN  GLOUCESTER.  40I 

bers  had  steadily  increased,  and  tlie  "spacious  parlors"  no 
longer  furnished  adequate  accommodations. 

The  assessors  of  the  First  Parish  claimed  the  right,  how- 
ever, to  tax  all  the  inhabitants  in  their  territory  for  the 
support  of  their  minister,  and  in  i  782  they  enforced  their 
demand  by  seizing  and  selling. at  auction  property  belong- 
ing to  three  prominent  members  of  the  Universalist  con- 
gregation. It  was  at  first  suggested  and  urged  by  some 
of  their  associates  that  the  easiest  way  out  of  the  difficulty 
"was  to  obtain  a  special  act  of  incorporation  from  the  legis- 
lature. To  this  it  was  objected  that  the  Bill  of  Rights  pre- 
fixed to  the  newly  adopted  constitution  of  the  common- 
wealth covered  the  case,  and  that  should  they  "  fly  to  the 
law-makers  instead  of  that  great  law  made  by  the  people 
to  govern  the  legislature  itself,  they  should,  in  their  appre- 
hension, betray  their  country's  freedom  and  act  a  cowardly 
part."  They  therefore  entered  suit  in  the  courts,  basing 
their  claim  on  the  guarantees  of  the  constitution.  These 
were,  as  set  forth  in  the  13ill  of  Rights,  that  "  All  religious 
societies  shall,  at  all  times,  have  the  exclusive  right  of 
electing  their  public  teachers,  and  of  contracting  with  them 
for  support  and  maintenance.  And  all  moneys  paid  by 
the  subject  for  the  support  of  public  worship  shall,  if  he 
require  it,  be  uniformly  applied  to  the  support  of  the  pub- 
lic teacher  or  teachers  of  iiis  own  religious  sect  or  denomi- 
nation, provided  there  be  any  on  whose  instruction  he 
attends."  The  application  of  this  provision  to  this  par- 
ticular case  was  denied  by  the  First  Parish,  on  the  ground 
that  the  congregation  of  Mr.  Murray  was  not  a  church  or 
religious  society — "  not  being  incorporated  by  any  order  or 
authority  known  in  this  commonwealth — but  a  mere  jum- 
ble of  detached  members;"  nor  was  Mr.  Murray  a  teacher 
of  religion,  but  was  to  be  regarded  as  one  who,  "  without  a 


402  THE    UXIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  iv. 

character,  credentials,  or  ordination,  has  assumed  the  char- 
acter of  a  pubHc  teacher  of  piety,  religion,  and  morality, 
and  styles  himself  clerks 

The  first  suit  instituted  was  withdrawn,  as  it  was  found 
necessary  to  bring  it  in  the  name  of  the  religious  teacher 
from  whom  the  money  had  been  diverted.  To  this  Mr. 
Murray  strenuously  objected.  His  "  reluctance  to  this 
step,"  says  Mrs.  Murray,  "  was  decided  and  affecting. 
He  had  passed  through  the  country  without  allowing  or 
accepting  contributions ;  and  to  be  considered  a  prosecutor 
for  moneys  said  to  be  due  to  h\m  for  preaching  the  gospel, 
which  he  had  determined  to  promulgate  free  as  the  light 
of  heaven! — the  very  idea  was  a  stab  to  his  long-cherished 
feelings."  Becoming  convinced  that  the  issue  affected  not 
simply  himself,  but  every  religious  denomination  in  the 
commonwealth  that  was  not  of  "  the  standing  order,"  and 
also  that  persistence  in  his  refusal  was  a  sacrifice  of  the 
personal  interests  of  his  friends  and  a  cowardly  giving  up 
of  a  constitutional  right,  he  at  last  had  the  suit  brought 
in  his  name.  It  came  to  trial  in  1783,  and  was  continued 
by  appeal  and  review  until  1786,  when  it  was  decided  in 
favor  of  Mr.  Murray.  At  the  trial  in  1785  the  court  ruled! 
against  him,  giving  it  "  as  their  full  opinion  that  no  teacher 
but  one  who  was  elected  by  a  corporate  society  could 
recover  money  paid  by  his  hearers  to  the  teachers  of  the 
parish."  The  jury  gave  a  verdict  contrary  to  this  ruling, 
and  so  a  review  of  the  case  was  ordered.  At  that  trial 
Judge  Dana  declared  that  he  had  changed  his  opinion  as 
to  the  meaning  in  the  clause  of  the  Bill  of  Rights  on  which 
the  suit  was  brought.  "  He  had  heretofore  been  of  opin- 
ion it  meant  teachers  of  bodies  corporate  ;  he  then  thought 
otherwise.  As  the  constitution  was  meant  for  a  liberal 
purpose,  its  construction  should  be  of  a  most  liberal  kind/ 
It  meant  in  this  instance  teachers  of  any  persuasion  what- 


OXFORD   ASSOC  J  A  71  OX. 


403 


ever,  Jew  or  Mohammedan.  It  would  be  for  the  jury  to 
determine  if  Mr.  Murray  was  a  teacher  of  piety,  moraUty, 
and  religion.  That  matter,  he  said,  had,  in  his  opinion, 
been  fully  proved.  The  only  question,  therefore,  before 
them  was,  if  Mr.  Murray  came  within  the  description  of 
the  constitution  and  had  a  right  to  require  the  money. 
'  It  is  my  opinion,'  he  decidedly  declared,  *  that  Mr.  Mur- 
ray comes  within  the  description  of  the  constitution,  and 
has  a  right  to  require  the  money.'  "^  The  verdict  of  the 
jury  was  that  "  the  judgment  obtained  the  preceding  year 
was  in  nothing  erroneous."  This  decision  secured  the 
legal  rights  not  only  of  Universalists,  but  of  Episcopa- 
lians, Baptists,  Presbyterians,  and  all  other  sects  as  well. 
In  1 790  a  case  from  some  other  quarter  was  brought  into 
court  and  the  decision  of  1786  was  reversed  by  a  ruling 
that  "  a  resident  of  a  corporate  parish  could  not  divert  the 
tax  imposed  on  him  for  the  support  of  religious  worship 
to  maintain  an  unincorporated  society."  The  Gloucester 
Universalists  then  obtained  an  Act  of  Incorporation. 

While  Mr.  Murray's  suit  was  in  the  courts,  a  newly 
organized  society  in  Oxford,  Mass.,  feeling  that  they  were 
concerned  in  the  issue,  sent  out,  July  21,  1785,  letters  to 
believers  in  various  localities  urging  a  conference  or  con- 
vention, saying  "  that  our  strength  depends  on  our  being 
cemented  together  in  one  united  body,  in  order  to  antici- 
pate any  embarrassment  of  our  constitutional  rights."  A 
meeting  was  agreed  upon  and  held  on  the  14th  of  Sep- 
tember. Mr.  Murray  wrote  to  a  friend  that  he  was  to  be 
present,  and  that  the  meeting  was  "  for  the  purpose  of 
deliberating  upon  some  plan  to  defeat  the  designs  of  our 
enemies,  who  aim  at  robbing  us  of  the  liberty  wherewith 
the  constitution  has  made  us  free."  Toward  the  last  of 
the  month  he  again  wrote :  "  Well,  I  have  been  to  Oxford, 

1  "  Life  of  Murray,"  p.  335  f. 


404  THE    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  iv. 

and  the  assembly  convened  there  was  truly  primitive.  We 
deliberated,  first,  on  a  name ;  secondly,  on  the  propriety 
of  being  united  in  our  common  defense ;  thirdly,  upon  the 
utility  of  an  annual  meeting  of  representatives  from  the 
different  societies ;  and  fourthly,  upon  keeping  up  a  con- 
stant correspondence  by  letter." 

There  were  present  Rev.  Messrs.  John  Murray,  Glouces- 
ter ;  Caleb  Rich,  Warwick ;  Adams  Streeter,  Milford ;  El- 
hanan  Winchester,  Philadelphia.  Laymen  were  present 
from  Boston,  Milford,  Bellingham,  Oxford,  Taunton,  Mass., 
and  Providence,  R.  I.  Mr.  Murray  brought  with  him  a 
form  for  society  or  parish  organization  which  had  been 
adopted  by  the  Gloucester  Universalists,  a  week  previ- 
ous, entitled  a  "  Charter  of  Compact."  It  was  an  instru- 
ment with  provisions  for  business  meetings,  officers,  rais- 
ing money  by  voluntary  subscriptions  for  the  "  purpose 
of  supporting  a  teacher  or  teachers  of  piety,  religion,  and 
morality,  and  for  the  purpose  of  assisting  poor  and  dis- 
tressed brethren,"  and  an  agreement  to  afford  all  necessary 
legal  measures  for  the  relief  of  such  as  should  be  unlaw- 
fully persecuted  for  choosing  their  own  religion.  The 
name  selected  was  "  Independent  Christian  Society  com- 
monly called  Universalists."  The  Association  voted  its 
approval  and  recommended  the  "  Charter  of  Compact  "  as 
the  form  of  organization  for  all  societies.  It  was  also 
agreed  to  propose  to  their  constituents  "  the  propriety  of 
an  annual  meeting,  and  that  the  first  be  held  in  Boston 
the  second  Wednesday  in  September,  1786." 

In  a  short  time  the  "  Compact  "  was  adopted  by  the 
societies  in  Milford,  Oxford,  and  Warwick.  Boston  Uni- 
versali.sts  did  not  adopt  it.  It  is  probable  that  they  had 
an  organization  of  some  kind  before  the  meeting  at  Ox- 
ford, but  no  records  are  found  of  earlier  date  than  Janu- 
ary I,  1786.    Taunton  and  Providence  had  no  organization 


MR.  MURRAY  IN  BOSTON. 


405 


until  several  years  later.  The  Milford  Universalists  were 
organized  as  early  as  August,  i  785.  The  Warwick  organ- 
ization will  be  described  hereafter.  There  is  no  record  of 
the  meeting  of  the  Association  in  1 786.  A  session  was 
held  at  Milford  in  1787,  which  was  probably  the  last.  At 
all  events,  there  is  no  mention  of  any  subsequent  session. 

Late  in  the  year  i  786,  on  request  made  by  the  Boston 
Society,  the  Gloucester  Universalists  released  Mr.  Murray 
the  third  Sunday  in  each  month,  and  he  thus  supplied  at 
Boston  until  1793,  with  the  exception  of  absence  in  Eng- 
land from  January  to  July,  1788.  The  occasion  of  this 
visit  abroad  was  his  being  prosecuted  and  fined  for  per- 
forming a  marriage  ceremony,  the  Supreme  Court  ruling 
that  he  had  not  been  ordained.  The  legislature  alone 
could  remedy  the  matter,  but  as  it  did  not  convene  until 
I'^ebruary  and  he  was  liable  to  a  suit  for  each  of  his  many 
marriage  ceremonies,  he  went  to  London.  The  legislature 
passed  an  indemnifying  act  in  the  following  March.  Mr. 
Murray  and  his  people  contended  that  to  appoint  and  set 
apart  a  minister  was  ordination  without  further  ceremony. 
The  courts  ruled  that  such  an  act  was  not  sufficiently  pub- 
lic. After  his  return  from  England  the  society  gave  him 
formal  ordination  and  published  an  account  of  it  in  the 
"  Columbian  Sentinel,"  printed  at  Boston,  thus  giving  it 
all  required  publicity. 

The  movement  in  Boston  assumed  such  importance  and 
wakened  so  much  interest  that  Mr.  Murray  could  not  re- 
sist the  importunity  of  the  church  there  to  give  them  the 
benefit  of  his  undivided  attention  and  residence  among 
them.  Accordingly  he  reluctantly  left  Gloucester  and  be- 
came a  resident  of  Boston  in  1793.  Until  October,  1809, 
he  continued  in  the  active  discharge  of  his  duties.  Stricken 
on  the  19th  of  that  month  with  paralysis  and  from  that 
time  utterly  helpless  in  body,  his  mind  remained  clear,  his 


406  THE    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  iv. 

faith  undaunted,  and  his  desire  for  release  from  bodily  in- 
firmity constant ;  and  he  joyfully  put  on  immortality  on 
the  3d  of  September,  18 15.  His  wife  thus  speaks  of  his 
tnental  occupation  in  his  days  of  physical  weakness:  "  His 
Bible  was  his  constant  companion.  Seated  by  his  affec- 
tionate assistant  in  his  easy-chair,  and  the  Book  of  God 
opened  before  him,  the  man  of  patience,  during  six  suc- 
ceeding years,  passed  the  long  summer  mornings,  from  the 
sun's  early  beams,  in  examining  and  reexamining  the  will 
of  his  August  Father.  He  had,  through  a  long  life,  been 
conversant  with  a  variety  of  English  authors.  Poets, 
dramatic  writers,  essayists,  and  historians  were  familiar  to 
him  ;  he  took  great  delight  in  perusing  them.  But  travel- 
ing through  those  multiplied  pages  might  be  termed  his 
excursions,  while  the  sacred  volume  was  his  intellectual 
home." 

A  scurrilous  letter,  written  by  an  eminent  New  England 
clergyman  not  long  after  Mr.  Murray's  arrival  in  America, 
made  some  vile  insinuations  in  regard  to  his  moral  char- 
acter and  spoke  of  him  slightingly  as  a  man  of  no  educa- 
tion. He  promptly  called  the  writer  to  an  account,  and 
endeavored  to  meet  him  and  induce  him  to  retract  "  the 
false  and  scandalous  reports  he  had  sent  out  "  ;  but,  said 
Mr.  Murray,  "  no  arguments  made  use  of  by  his  best 
friends  could  bring  him  to  my  face.  He  told  them,  in- 
deed, that  he  was  sure  he  said  no  Jiarni  of  me ;  and  that 
if  he  had  said  anything  to  my  disadvantage,  he  was  ready 
to  ask  my  pardon  ;  that  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Forbes  in  confi- 
dence, not  expecting  that  I  would  ever  hear  of  it."^  It 
was  impossible,  however,  to  wholly  stay  the  influence  of 
such  a  libel,  and  although  his  moral  reputation  suffered 
very  little  thereby,  he  came  to  be  generally  regarded,  even 

^  See  "  Answer  to  an  '  Appeal  to  the  Impartial  Publick,'  "  and  Mr.  Murray's 
Broadside  in  Reply.      Both  publislicd  in  1785. 


A.V  EFFECTIVE  PIONEER.  407 

by  Otherwise  liberal-minded  men,  as  illiterate.  Personal 
acquaintance  always  corrected  this  impression,  but  those 
who  never  met  him  were,  of  course,  most  numerous,  and 
their  opinions  have  prevailed  in  some  quarters  to  the  pres- 
ent. In  fact,  his  education  was  good  for  his  day,  his  abili- 
ties were  in  certain  directions  quite  remarkable,  and  his 
moral  and  Christian  character  was  of  a  high  order.  And 
while  he  never  to  any  great  extent  nor  for  any  great 
length  of  time  stamped  his  opinions  and  methods  upon  the 
denomination  which  he  did  so  much  to  call  into  being,  the 
Universalist  Church  regards  him  as  entitled  to  a  large  place 
in  its  remembrance  and  esteem.  He  was  a  much  needed 
and  an  effective  pioneer ;  and  the  results  which  we  rejoice 
in  to-day  show  that  he  laid  the  foundation  on  which  others 
have  planned,  aftd  builded  better  than  he  knew. 


CHAPTER   V. 

ELHANAN   WINCHESTER    AND    CALEB    RICH. 

As  early  as  1771  Mr.  Murray  had  visited  Philadelphia, 
and  until  his  removal  to  New  England,  three  years  later, 
he  often  preached  there.  Anthony  Benezet,  Christopher 
Marshall,  and  Thomas  Say,  prominent  Philadelphians,  were 
his  personal  friends  ^  and  sympathized  with  him  in  belief 
in  Universalism,  though  evidently  not  wholly  accepting  its 
Rellyan  foundation.  After  1774  his  visits  were  less  fre- 
quent, but  were  not  wholly  given  up,  and  many  were  con- 
verted by  his  preaching.  No  organization  resulted  from 
these  labors.  This  came  from  another  and  unexpected 
source,  the  conversion  and  labors  of  Rev.  Elhanan  Win- 
chester. 

Mr.  Winchester,  a  native  of  Brookline,  Mass.,  born  Sep- 
tember 30,  I  75  I,  was  ordained  by  the  "  Open  Communion 
Baptists  "  as  pastor  of  a  church  of  that  faith  in  Rehoboth, 
Mass.  Before  the  year  closed  he  had  adopted  the  plan 
of  close  communion,  and  ere  long  he  renounced  Arminian 
sentiments  and  became  one  of  the  most  thorough  Calvinist 
preachers  in  the  country.^  He  continued  to  preach  in 
various  parts  of  Massachusetts  until  the  autumn  of  1774, 
when  he  took  a  journey  to  South  Carolina  and  became 
minister  of  the  Baptist  Church  of  Welsh  Neck.  Here  he 
had  put  in  his  hands  a  copy  of  Siegvolck's  "  Everlasting 
Gospel,"  with  a  request  to  tell  the  lender  "  what  it  meant 

1  A.  C.  Thomas's  "  Century  of  Universalism,"  p.  23  f.    My  "  Universalism 
in  America,"  vol.  i.,  pp.  ^;^,  406  ff. 

2  Stone's  "  Life  of  Winchester,"  p.  23. 

408 


PHILADELPHIA    BAPTISTS.  409 

to  hold  forth."  "  When  I  had  satisfied  my  friend  in  that 
respect,  I  laid  the  book  down,  and  I  believe  we  both  con- 
cluded it  to  be  a  pleasant,  ingenious  h}-pothesis,  but  had 
no  serious  thoughts  of  its  being  true ;  and  for  my  part,  I 
determined  not  to  trouble  myself  about  it,  or  to  think  any 
more  of  the  matter." 

Returning  from  a  vacation  spent  in  New  England  in  the 
early  fall,  i  780,  he  paused  a  few  days  in  Philadelphia,  and 
the  First  Baptist  Church  there  being  destitute  of  a  pastor, 
and  anxious  to  secure  his  services,  he  remained.  Crowds 
were  attracted  by  his  eloquence.  Soon  the  house  of  wor- 
ship was  insufficient  to  accommodate  the  congregation, 
and  the  largest  church  edifice  in  Philadelphia  was  opened 
for  him. 

Soon  another  copy  of  "  The  Everlasting  Gospel "  fell  in 
'his  way,  and  this  time  it  was  read  and  studied.  Before 
long  he  obtained  access  to  Sir  George  Stonehouse's  treatise 
on  "  Universal  Restitution,"  and  conviction  of  the  truth  of 
lUniversalism  w\as  wrought  in  his  mind.  I"or  a  while  he 
<held  the  thought  in  silence,  but  some  carefully  expressed 
intimations  of  his  conviction  brought  him  under  the  charge 
^'of  heresy.  A  statement  of  the  facts  in  the  case  from  the 
Baptist  standpoint  was  given  in  the  "  Mistory  of  the  Phil- 
adelphia Baptist  Association,"  published  in  1832,  in  a 
weekly  journal,  "The  World."  Mr.  Winchester's  sympa- 
thizers in  the  church  were,  it  is  there  stated,  "  nearly  two 
to  one."  They  proposed  to  the  minority  "to  have  the 
property  valued  and  either  party  take  it  at  its  value." 
Rev.  Mr.  Jones,  the  writer  of  the  history,  says:  "  I  cannot 
but  commend  the  justice  and  magnanimity  of  the  majority. 
They  were  in  possession  of  the  propert}-,  much  of  which 
belonged  to  them,  nor  had  it  in  their  power  to  do  much 
for  the  weal  of  Zion,  yet  they  had  some  conscience."  Why 
this  proposition  was  not  accepted  is  not  explained.      The 


4IO  THE    UNI\-ERSALISTS.  [Chap.  V. 

minority  persevered  in  their  efforts  to  hold  the  property, 
and  were  finally  sustained  in  the  contest  by  the  courts. 

Mr.  Winchester,  accomp'anied  by  about  one  hundred  of  ^'1 
the  excommunicated  Baptists,  then  began  a  distinctively  /■ 
Universalist  movement.      He  records  that  "  when  we  were 
deprived  of  our  House  of  Worship,  the  Trustees  of  the 
University  gave   us   the   liberty  of  their  Hall,  where  we 
quietly  worshiped  God  for  about  four  years,  until  we  pur- 
chased a  place  for  ourselves."      Some  time  in   1781    they,, 
organized  under  the  name  of  the  "Society  of  Universal!,'! 
Baptists,"  and  in   November,    1785,  purchased  an   estate!  1 
known  as  "  Free  Mason's  Lodge."     Mr.  Winchester  w^as  ' 
at  this  time  absent  in  New  England  ;  hence  his  attendance, 
as  we  have  seen,  at  the  Oxford  Association  that  year.      He 
returned  to  Philadelphia  in  the  spring  of  i  786,  where  he 
continued  to  preach  until  late  in  the  summer  of  i  787,  when, 
as  see  chapter  ii.,  he  sailed  for  England.      Very  much  dis- 
couraged, and  perhaps  diminished  in  numbers,  the  society 
continued  their  meetings,  their  pulpit  being  supplied  most 
of  the  time  by  Rev.  Artis  Seagrave,  of  Pittsgrove,  N.  J." 
At   the    close   of   religious   service    September  6,  1789,  a 
meeting  was    held   to  consider  the  propriety  of  calling  a 
convention,   several   churches   having   been    organized   in 
Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  and  elsewhere.      A  committee 
having  been  empowered  to  draft  a  letter  on  the  subject,  it 
was  agreed  that  it  should  be  sent  "  to  such  persons  or  so- 
cieties as  the  committee  may  deem  proper."     The  object 
of  the  convention  was  set  forth  as  being:   "To  take  our 
circumstances   and   situation    into   consideration,   that   we 
may  be  enabled  thereby,  as  much  as  in  our  power  lieth,  to 
have  one  uniform  mode  of  divine  worship ;  one  method  of 
ordaining  suitable  persons  to  the  ministry ;  one  consistent 
way  of  administering  the  Lord's  Supper,  or  whatever  else 
may  appear  desirable  to  any  when  such  convention  meets, 


RE  V.  DA  VI D   El  'A  lYS.  4 1  I 

having  regard  to  the  practice  of  our  Saviour,  by  endeavor- 
ing to  build  upon  the  broadest  basis  of  Christian  benevo- 
lence." 

Favorable  response  being  given,  the  convention  was  held 
in  the  "  Meeting  House  in  Lodge  Alley,"  the  session  last- 
ing from  May  25,  1790,  until  June  8th.  Philadelphia  and 
New  Britain,  Pa.,  Boston  and  Gloucester,  Mass.,  Cohansey, 
Kingwood,  Pilesgrove,  Pittsgrove,  Penn's  Neck,  and  Tom's 
River,  N.  J.,  and  Frederick  County,  Va.,  were  represented 
by  seven  preachers  and  ten  laymen.  The  preachers  were 
John  Murray,  Moses  Winchester,  Duncan  McLean,  Artis 
Seagrave,  Nicholas  Cox,  William  Worth,  David  Evans. 
With  the  exception  of  Murray  and  Evans,  all  had  been 
Baptist  preachers,  and  held  the  doctrine  of  Universalism 
on  the  Winchesterian  basis,  which  will  be  described  pres- 
ently. Evans  had  been  a  Baptist  deacon  of  the  church  at 
New  Britain,  Pa.,  several  years  prior  to  1785.  Li  Novem- 
ber of  that  year  he  appears  at  the  same  place,  where  he 
preached  a  sermon  "  at  the  Meeting  of  the  United  Breth- 
ren in  New  Britain."  It  was  afterward  published  with  the 
title  "  General  Election,"  and  was  an  argument  for  Uni- 
versalism as  advocated  by  Relly  and  Murray.  There  is 
no  doubt  that  the  example  of  Elhanan  Winchester  in  avow- 
ing belief  in  Universalism  was  followed  by  many  Baptist 
preachers  and  their  congregations  about  that  time.  In  the 
record  of  events  between  i  780  and  i  790,  a  reliable  author- 
ity says:  "  During  this  period  a  number  of  ministers,  and 
with  them  a  considerable  number  of  brethren,  fell  in  with 
Elhanan  Winchester's  notion  of  universal  restoration.  The 
rage  for  this  doctrine  prevailed  for  a  time  to  a  considerable 
extent."  ^  Mr.  Jones,  in  the  "  History  of  the  Philadelphia 
Baptist  Association  "  before  referred  to,  has  the  following: 
"  The  year  1 790  presents  no  joyful  aspect.      Clouds  and 

1  Benedict's  "General  History  of  the  Baptist  Denomination,"  vol.  i.,  p.  275. 


4 1 2  THE    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  v. 

Storms,  tornadoes  and  volcanic  eruptions,  echoed  and  re- 
echoed from  Dan  to  Beersheba.  The  doctrine  of  a  '  gen- 
eral provision,'  like  an  unexpected  pestilence,  or  as  the 
insidious,  fatal  samoul  of  Africa,  came  among  some  of 
the  churches.  Whether  it  was  indigenous  or  exotic  the 
archives  of  the  day  do  not  inform  us.  This  we  know,  it 
led  on  to  Universalism,  a  depot  to  which  it  as  naturally 
tends  as  a  weight  in  motion  on  an  inclined  plane  rushes  on  to 
the  lowest  point  of  destination.  Cape  May  and  Pittsgrove 
churches  were  so  nearly  ruined  by  '  a  general  atonement,' 
which  ended  in  Universalism,  that  scarcely  anything  could 
be  seen  in  their  borders  but  their  tears,  and  scarcely  any- 
thing could  be  heard  but  their  sighs  and  groans.  And  to 
add  to  the  calamity,  Nicholas  Cox,  a  preacher  in  Kingwood, 
now  grown  wiser  than  his  fathers,  mounted  on  the  fractious 
steed  of  *  general  provision  '  and  rode  furiously  on  to  the  / 
barren,  hopeless,  desolate  plains  of  Universalism."  / 

There  was  present  at  the  Philadelphia  Convention  and 
taking  an  active  part  in  it  by  invitation,  although  not  a 
delegate,  one  of  the  most  eminent  men  of  his  time,  Dr. 
Benjamin  Rush,  a  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, and  physician  and  surgeon-general  in  charge  of  the 
hospitals  during  the  Revolution.  He  was  educated  a  Cal- 
vinist,  but  became  an  Arminian  by  reading  the  writings 
of  Rev.  John  Fletcher,  an  eminent  Methodist  preacher  and 
author.  "  I  have  read,"  said  Dr.  Rush,  "  all  Mr.  Fletcher's 
writings,  and  I  thank  God  that  I  ever  did ;  for  until  I  read 
Mr.  I'letcher,  I  never  could  plead  the  promises  of  God  with 
confidence ;  for  being  educated  a  Calvinist,  I  did  not  know 
I  was  included  in  the  atonement.  But  Mr.  Fletcher  con- 
vinced me  that  Jesus  Christ  died  for  the  whole  world,  and 
therefore  that  he  died  for  Dr.  Rush.  I  could  then  claim 
the  divine  promises  addressed  to  me."  ^     He  became  in- 

1   Stone's  "  Life  of  Winchester,"  p.  200. 


DR.  BENJAMIN  RUSH.  413 

terested  in  Universalism  before  Mr.  Winchester's  departure 
for  England,  urged  him  to  go  as  a  missionary,  and  furnished 
him  with  letters  to  use  among  his  English  friends.  Their 
correspondence  during  Mr.  Winchester's  residence  abroad 
may  be  found  in  the  volume  just  cited.  Under  date  of 
May  II,  I  79 1,  Dr.  Rush  writes:  "  Your  works  are  beyond 
the  present  state  of  knowledge  in  our  world,  but  the  time 
must  come  when  they  will  rise  into  universal  estimation 
and  bear  down  all  the  modern  systems  of  our  schools. 
They  are  founded  on  a  rock,  and  the  more  reason  and  re- 
ligion prevail  in  the  world,  the  more  their  beauty,  sym- 
metry, and  sublimity  will  be  seen  and  admired.  .  .  .  The 
Universal  doctrine  prevails  more  and  more  in  our  country, 
particularly  among  persons  eminent  for  their  piety,  in 
whom  it  is  not  a  mere  speculation,  but  a  new  principle  of 
action  in  the  heart,  prompting  to  practical  godliness."  ^ 

Mr.  Winchester  having  preached  and  published  a  sermon 
on  the  death  of  Rev.  John  Wesley,  Dr.  Rush  thus  speaks  of 
it:  "  Your  funeral  sermon  for  Mr.  John  Wesley  does  honor 
to  the  philanthropy  of  your  Universal  principles.  I  admire 
and  honor  that  great  man  above  any  man  that  has  lived 
since  the  time  of  the  apostles :  his  writings  will  ere  long 
revive  in  support  of  otir  doctrine,  for  if  Christ  died  for  all, 
as  Mr.  Wesley  always  taught,  it  will  soon  appear  a  neces- 
sary consequence  that  all  shall  be  saved.  ...  At  present 
we  wish  '  liberty  to  the  whole  world  ' ;  the  next  touch  of 
the"  celestial  magnet  upon  the  human  heart  will  direct  it 
into  wishes  for  the  salvation  of  all  mankind."- 
!  /  The  convention  adopted  Articles  of  Faith,  Plan  of  Church 
[  Government,  and  Recommendations  to  the  Churches.  Their 
^^  revision  and  arrangement  for  publication  was  committed 
to  Dr.  Rush,  who  reported  them  back  to  the  convention 

1  Stone's  "  Life  of  Winchester,"  p.  196  f. 

2  Ibid.,  pp.  197,  199. 


414  THE    UNI  VERSA  LISTS.  [Chap.  v. 

in  the  form  in  which  they  are  recorded  and  printed.^  The 
Articles  of  Faith  were  as  foHows : 

"  I.  Of  the  Holy  Scriptures. — We  beheve  the  Script- 
ures of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  to  contain  a  revela- 
tion of  the  perfections  and  will  of  God,  and  the  rule  of 
faith  and  practice. 

"  2.  Of  the  Supreme  Being. — We  believe  in  One  God, 
infinite  in  all  his  perfections ;  and  that  these  perfections 
are  all  modifications  of  infinite,  adorable,  incomprehensible, 
and  unchangeable  LoVE. 

"3.  Of  the  Mediator. — We  believe  that  there  is  ONE 
Mediator  between  God  and  man,  the  man  Christ  Jesus, 
in  whom  dwelleth  all  the  fullness  of  the  Godhead  bodily ; 
who,  by  giving  himself  a  ransom  for  all,  hath  redeemed 
them  to  God  by  his  blood ;  and  who,  by  the  merit  of  his 
death  and  the  efficacy  of  liis  Spirit,  will  finally  restore  the 
whole  human  race  to  happiness. 

"  4.  Of  the  Holy  Ghost. — We  believe  in  the  HOLY 
Ghost,  whose  office  it  is  to  make  known  to  sinners  the 
truth  of  their  salvation,  through  the  medium  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  and  to  reconcile  the  hearts  of  the  children  of 
men  to  God,  and  thereby  to  dispose  them  to  genuine  holi- 
ness. 

"5.  Of  Good  Works. — We  believe  in  the  obligation  of 
the  moral  law,  as  the  rule  of  life ;  and  we  hold  that  the 
love  of  God,  manifest  to  man  in  a  Redeemer,  is  the  best 
means  of  producing  obedience  to  that  law,  and  promoting 
a  holy,  active,  and  useful  life." 

In  the  Plan  of  Church  Government,  "  a  church  "  was 
defined  as  consisting  "  of  a  number  of  believers,  united  by 
covenant,  for  the  purposes  of  maintaining  the  public  wor- 
ship of  God,  the  preaching  of  the  gospel,  ordaining  officers, 

1  "  Tetters  and  Thoughts  :  "  Rush  MSS.,  preserved  in  the  Ridgway  branch 
of  the  Philadelpliia  Lilirary. 


CIJURCII   GOVERNMENT.  415 

preserving  order  and  peace  among  its  members,  and  reliev- 
ing the  poor."  The  officers  were  "bishops"  and  "  dea- 
c6ns."  "The  terms  bishop,  elder,  minister,  pastor,  and 
teacher"  were  held  to  be  the  same,  "  intended  only  to  ex- 
press the  different  capacities  in  which  the  same  officer  is 
called  to  act."  Each  church  was  empowered  to  decide 
on  the  "  call,  qualifications,  and  gifts  of  those  who  wish  to 
devote  themselves  to  God  in  the  ministry,"  and  to  "  sol- 
emnly set  apart  and  ordain  such  persons ;  and  a  certificate 
of  such  appointment  shall  be  to  them  a  sufficient  ordination 
to  preach  the  gospel  and  to  administer  such  ordinances, 
hereinafter  mentioned,  as  to  them  may  seem  proper,  wher- 
ever they  may  be  called  by  Divine  Providence." 

No  ordinances  were  made  obligatory  or  even  recom- 
mended, the  convention  recognizing  the  diversity  of  opin- 
ion which  had  prevailed  in  all  ages  of  the  church  in  regard 
to  them;  "  and  as  this  diversity  of  opinions  has  often  been 
the  means  of  dividing  Christians  who  were  united  by  the 
same  spirit  in  more  essential  articles,"  this  plan  proposed 
and  agreed  "to  admit  all  persons  who  hold  the  articles 
of  our  faith,  and  maintain  good  works,  into  membership, 
whatever  their  opinions  may  be  as  to  the  nature,  form,  or 
obligation  of  any  of  the  ordinances."  It  was  further  pro- 
vided that  if  a  church  believing  in  the  ordinances  should 
have  a  minister  who  could  not  administer  them  "  contrary 
to  his  conscience,  a  neighboring  minister  who  shall  hold 
like  principles  respecting  the  ordinance  or  ordinances  re- 
quired by  any  member,  shall  be  invited  to  perform  them ; 
or,  if  it  be  thought  more  expedient,  each  church  may  ap- 
point, or  ordain,  one  of  their  own  members  to  administer 
the  ordinances  in  such  way  as  to  each  church  ma)-  seem 
proper." 

The  institution  of  a  school  or  schools  in  which  children 
"  shall  be   taught   reading,   writing,   arithmetic,   and  psal- 


41 6  THE    UNIVERSALISrS.  [Chap.  v. 

mody,"^  was  recommended  to  each  church.  The  holding 
of  slaves  was  declared  "  inconsistent  with  the  union  of  the 
human  race  in  a  common  Saviour,  and  the  obligations  to 
mutual  and  universal  love  which  flow  from  that  union." 
In  the  "  Circular  Letter"  accompanying  the  Articles  and 
Plan,  it  was  said  of  them  :  "  The  Articles  are  few,  but  they 
contain  the  essentials  of  the  gospel.  .  .  .  The  Plan  of 
Church  Government  is  nearly  that  of  the  Congregational 
Church.  We  conceive  it  to  be  most  friendly  to  Christian 
liberty,  and  most  agreeable  to  the  Word  of  God." 

The  conclusions  reached  in  the  Articles  of  Faith  and  in 
the  Plan  for  Churches  were  not  hastily  reached,  nor  with- 
out the  giving  up  of  some  strong  personal  preferences  for 
the  sake  of  united  effort.  This  is  evident  from  the  length 
of  the  session  and  of  what  we  know  of  the  composition  of 
the  convention.  The  Rellyans  were  in  the  minority,  yet 
much  of  the  phraseology  of  these  Articles,  Plan,  and  Rec- 
ommendations is  decidedly  Rellyan.  This  is  particularly 
noticeable  in  the  section  relating  to  the  ordinances,  and  in 
the  deliverance  in  reference  to  slavery.  John  Murray  and 
the  Gloucester  Universalists  were  opposed  to  water  bap- 
tism. This  they  had  distinctly  avowed  in  their  controversy 
with  the  First  Parish:  "We  distinguish  ourselves  from  the 
church  under  the  instruction  of  Mr.  Forbes  by  our  not  using 
baptism  as  an  external  rite."  Mr.  Murray  had  been  away 
from  Gloucester  thirteen  years  before  a  church  was  organ- 
ized there  observing  the  ordinances  of  baptism  and  the 
Lord's  Supper,  under  the  pastorate  of  Rev.  Thomas  Jones, 
in  1806.  There  were  but  three  persons  out  of  the  seven- 
teen composing  the  convention  who  were  Rellyans.  All 
the  others  were  converts  from  the  Baptists,  retaining  all 
their  former  views,  except  with  reference  to  the  extent 
1  Studies  similar  to  those  distinguishing  the  Raikes  Sunday-school. 


UNITARIAN   UNIVERSAL/ SM.  417 

and  efficacy  of  the  atonement.     The  charity  and  HberaHty 
of  such  a  majority  were  remarkable. 

Soon  after  the  session  the  followers  of  Winchester  dis- 
solved   their  organization   as    "  Universal    Baptists,"    and^ 
united  with  Mr.  Murray's  friends  in  organizing  "  The  Firs' 
Independent  Church  of  Christ,  commonly  called  Univer-I 
salists. "     They  adopted  the  convention  Articles  of  Faith, 
ruling  out  the  application  of  an  avowed  Unitarian  for  mem 
bership,  on  the  ground  that  their  creed  would  not  allow 
them  to  accept  him. 

When  Mr.  Murray  reached  Boston  and  attempted  to  or- 
ganize a  church  there  under  these  Articles,  they  were  ob- 
jected to  by  one  whom  he  calls  "  a  good  old  friend,  who, 
thinking  the  language  of  convention  not  sufficiently  clear 
and  strong  in  establishing  the  doctrine  of  the  di\'inity 
[deity]  of  our  Saviour,  wished  to  make  some  amendments 
in  the  Articles  of  Faith  before  he  could  sign  them."  He 
was  not  successful,  and  a  church  was  organized  as  pro- 
posed, in  January,  1791;  but  in  less  than  a  month  the 
Articles  underwent  re\ision  and  were  made  more  explicitly 
Rellyan,  but  not  any  more  Trinitarian. 

Three  years  later,  a  lengthy  creed  appeared  in  print, 
emanating  from  New  Jersey — the  composition,  without 
doubt,  of  Rev.  Abel  Sarjent — "adopted  by  some  of  our 
churches  and  presented  to  the  consideration  of  others," 
which  was  avowedly  Unitarian  ;  its  Article  on  Belief  in 
God  beginning  thus :  "  W^e  believe  that  there  is  one  God, 
and  that  there  is  none  other  but  he ;  that  there  is  but  one 
person  in  the  Godhead."  Christ  is  spoken  of  not  as  "  God 
the  Son,"  but  as  "  the  Son  of  God,  the  first  and  greatest 
intelligence  that  was  ever  produced  or  brought  forth  by 
the  infinite  love,  wisdom,  and  power  of  the  invisible  Deity." 

At  the  session  of  the  convention  in  1 792  it  had  become 


/Aa. 


41 8  THE    UXIVERSALISrS.  [CiiAP.  V. 

evident  that  it  was  inconvenient  for  the  New  England 
Universalists  to  attend,  Mr.  Murray  being  their  sole  repre- 
sentative in  1790,  and  no  one  appearing  for  them  in  1791. 
The  Boston  church  therefore  reported  by  letter  to  the 
session  in  i  792  the  condition  of  the  churches  in  that  re- 
gion, and  presented  the  following  request :  "  As  there  ap- 
pears to  be  a  great  improbability  that  your  Annual  Con- 
ventions will  ever  be  attended  by  as  many  delegates  from 
the  four  New  England  States  as  there  are  or  may  be 
churches,  by  reason  of  the  lengthy  way  to  so  remote  a 
part,  and  the  great  poverty  of  infant  societies,  who  will 
long  be  without  funds,  it  has  therefore  been  thought  ad- 
visable that  a  convention  should  be  holden  in  some  cen- 
\  \  tral  part  of  the  four  New  England  States,  and  that  all  the 
churches  in  these  States  and  Vermont  [possibly  New  York 
is  meant]  might  be  invited  to  attend.  This  convention, 
if  holden  in  the  fall,  would  present  an  opportunity  to  you 
of  receiving  accounts  therefrom  in  the  spring,  and  your 
letters  in  May  might  be  forwarded  to  us  for  considera- 
tion in  the  September  meeting;  and  our  doings  of  Sep- 
tember transmitted  for  your  consideration  at  the  May  con- 
vention. .  .  .  Should  it  seem  meet  to  you,  dearly  beloved, 
that  the  within  be  attended  to,  and  that  beneficial  effects 
would  result  therefrom,  we  should  be  pleased  with  receiv- 
ing a  few  lines  confirming  us  in  the  sentiments  thus  ex- 
pressed." The  convention  answered:  "  Your  information 
of  a  proposal  of  forming  a  convention  in  your  parts  meets 
our  hearty  approbation,  upon  the  full  assurance  of  continu- 
ing such  a  mutual  connection  as  you  mention.  And  per- 
haps it  may  be  best  to  have  a  general  meeting  of  delegates 
from  the  several  conventions  that  may  be  established  ini 
some  future  period.  And  we  are  happy  to  tell  you  of  a' 
similar  request  of  forming  a  convention  in  the  West." 
The  request  from  "the  West"  was  from  Washington 


DK.  JOSEPH  rKIESTLEY.  419 

County,  Pa.,  and  a  convention  was  organized  at  Mori^an- 
town  in  August,  1793.  As  that  section  was  then,  and  for 
some  Httle  time  after,  involved  in  grave  troubles,  culminat- 
ing in  what  is  known  as  the  "Whiskey  Insurrection" — a 
political  difficulty  which  made  sad  havoc  with  all  religious 
organizations  in  that  section — it  was  probably  short-lived, 
and  its  constituency  has  no  further  mention. 

The  Philadelphia  Convention  continued  its  sessions  un- 

/  til  and  including  1809,  when  it  dissolved.      From  that  time 

^  until  the  organization  of  State  Conventions,  its  churches 

had  an  intermittent  representation  in  the  "  New  England 

and  other  States"  Convention. 

In  I  794  Rev.  Elhanan  Winchester  returned  from  Eng- 
land, and  after  an  extended  tour  in  New  England  was  for 
several  months  regularly  employed  in  Philadelphia.  The 
eminent  Unitarian  Dr.  Joseph  Priestley  was  also  in  Phila- 
delphia several  years,  beginning  with  1 794 ;  and  between 
the  two,  although  differing  in  many  theological  points,  a 
strong  friendship  was  formed.  Dr.  Priestley  often  officiating 
in  Mr.  Winchester's  pulpit,  and  in  the  winter  of  1796  giv- 
ing therefrom  a  series  of "  Discourses,"  afterward  published, 
on  "  The  Evidences  of  Revealed  Religion."  Subsequently 
he  gave  in  the  same  place  a  discourse  entitled  "  Unitarian- 
ism  Explained  and  Defended,"  w^hich  he  concluded  with 
an  avowal  of  his  belief  in  Universalisni  and  with  an  argu- 
ment therefor.  He  began  this  part  of  his  discourse  thus: 
"  Having  given  this  account  of  my  faitii  with  regard  to 
articles  of  the  greatest  secondary  im})ort;mce,  I  shall  take 
the  liberty  (especially  as  I  ha\e  been  indulged  with  an  op- 
portunity of  pleading  what  I  believe  to  be  the  cause  of  truth 
in  this  place)  to  express  m\-  concurrence  with  tlie  minister 
and  the  congregation  worshiping  here  in  their  opinion  con- 
cerning the  final  liappiness  of  all  the  human  race — a  doc- 
trine eminently  calculated  to  promote  alike  gratitude  to 


420  THE    UNI  VERSA  LISTS.  [CiiAi'.  v. 

God   and   benevolence    to  man,  and   consequently   every 
other  virtue." 

Mr.  Winchester  was  now  going  into  decline  with  con- 
sumption ;  but  as  late  as  March  4,  i  796,  Dr.  Rush  wrote  to 
a  friend  that  he  was  preaching  on  Sunday  evenings  "  to 
crowded  audiences.  .  .  .  He  is  as  usual,  eloquent,  Script- 
ural, and  irresistible  in  his  reasonings  upon  all  subjects." 
During  the  following  year  he  preached  as  he  was  able,  and 
died  in  Hartford,  Conn.,  April  18,  1797. 

Of  all  the  early  Universalist  preachers,  Mr.  Winchester/ 
was  by  far  the  most  eminent  for  general  learning  and  for] 
intellectual  grasp,  fertility,  and  power.  With  a  strong 
thirst  for  knowledge  he  combined  an  exceedingly  retentive 
memory,  which  never  failed  him  as  a  preacher  and  writer. 
His  industry  was  untiring,  and  although  he  lived  less  than 
forty-six  years,  his  published  works  number  thirty-nine 
titles.  We  have  noticed  in  preceding  pages  that  at  the 
time  of  his  ordination  he  leaned  strongly  toward  Arminian 
views,  but  soon  became  a  Calvinist  of  the  iron  type  of  Dr. 
Gill.  During  the  protracted  struggle  of  his  mind  before 
avowing  his  belief  in  Universalism  (a  conflict  with  doubts 
and  hopes  for  nearly  three  years)  he  again  became  an 
Arminian,  and  from  this  point — a  directly  opposite  one 
from  that  on  which  Murray  started — he  approached  Uni- 
versalism. Taking  his  "  Dialogues  on  the  Universal  Res- 
toration "  as  furnishing  the  most  full  and  connected  state- 
ment of  his  theology,  we  find  that  it  differed  but  little  from 
what  is  now  called  "  Orthodoxy,"  except  in  regard  to  the 
duration  and  design  of  punishment,  and  the  ultimate  sal- 
vation of  all  moral  creatures,  whether  men  or  angels.  The 
purpose  of  God  to  save  all  appeared  to  him  to  be  clearly 
declared  in  the  Scriptures,  and  all  passages  seemingly  op- 
posed thereto  were  susceptible  of  other  and  wiiolly  har- 
monious interpretations.      His  arguments  on  such  supposed 


MR.    WINCHESTER'S    THEOLOGY.  42 1 

difficulties  were  usually  distinguished  by  good  sense  and 
always  by  perfect  candor.  With  his  open-hearted  sincerity 
and  serious  temper  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  cavil  or  to 
indulge  in  any  sleight-of-hand  treatment  of  any  portion  of 
the  Scriptures.  Though,  like  most  of  his  contemporaries 
in  all  sects,  he  at  times  relied  too  much  on  the  mere  verbal 
relations  of  particular  texts,  and  so  failed  to  give  free  scope 
to  the  general  purport  of  the  discourse  ;  and  though  he 
sometimes  ran  into  extravagant  enthusiasm  in  accepting 
as  literal  the  gorgeous  imagery  of  the  prophecies  and 
apocalyptic  visions — yet,  so  far  as  we  know,  he  was  the  first 
to  introduce  among  the  Universalists  anything  that  can 
be  called  Scripture  interpretation.  The  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  his  method,  somewhat  enlarged  indeed,  and  modi- 
fied by  the  general  improvements  of  a  century,  as  well  as 
by  our  revisions,  are  those  on  which  the  Bible  and  all  other 
writings  are  now  explained. 

His  views  of  the  intermediate  state  and  of  e.schatology 
were,  briefly  stated,  these :  Immediately  after  his  crucifix- 
ion, the  soul  of  Christ  went  first  to  paradise  (Luke  xxiii.  43), 
and  there  announced  to  the  waiting,  expectant  saints  of 
all  former  ages,  salvation  through  his  blood  just  shed. 
Then  he  descended  to  hell,  in  the  lower  parts  of  the  earth, 
and  there  "preached  to  the  spirits  in  prison"  (i  Peter 
iii.,  iv.),  some  of  whom  were  thus  converted.  At  his  as- 
cension, the  souls  both  of  the  ancient  believers  in  para- 
dise and  of  the  recent  believers  in  the  underworld,  fol- 
lowed him  in  his  triumphal  progress  into  heaven  (Ps.  Ixviii. 
18;  Eph.  iv.  8),  and  were  received  with  him  into  glory. 
Before  the  end  of  the  world,  the  bodies  of  all  the  saints 
shall  be  raised  and  they  shall  reign  personally  with  Christ 
a  thousand  years  on  earth,  in  all  terrestrial  as  well  as 
spiritual  enjoyments.  At  the  close  of  this  period  S^tan 
will  be  loosed  and  a  general  apostasy  will  follow ;  and  sub- 


422  THE    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  v. 

sequently  the  innumerable  hosts  of  rebels  will  be  destroyed 
in  a  most  terrible  manner  by  fire  from  heaven.  Then 
shall  come  the  second  resurrection  and  universal  judgment 
(Rev.  XX.).  This  will  be  held  on  our  earth.  The  separation 
having  been  made  and  the  doom  pronounced,  the  righteous 
shall  follow  Christ  in  his  return  to  the  highest  heaven, 
while  the  wicked  shall  be  left  behind  for  punishment  (Matt. 
XXV.  31-46).  The  earth  will  then  be  melted,  by  the  final 
conflagration,  into  a  lake  of  fire,  the  horrible  abode  of  lost 
men  and  angels,  for  ages  of  ages.  Their  unutterable  suff"er- 
ings,  however,  will  bring  them  to  submission,  though  some 
of  the  most  perverse  may  continue  obstinate,  perhaps,  till 
the  fifty-thousandth  year — answering  to  the  Mosaic  Jubi- 
lee of  the  fiftieth  year.  But  when  the  earth  shall  have  been 
thoroughly  purified  by  the  flames,  and  all  rebels,  angelic 
as  well  as  human,  brought  to  repentance,  the  new  heavens 
and  new  earth  shall  appear  and  universal  blessedness  be 
complete.  The  Son  shall  deliver  up  the  kingdom  to  the 
Father,  and  "  God  be  all  in  all."  ^ 

Except  in  the  final  result,  the  salvation  of  all  our  race, 
Mr.  Winchester's  theology  had  little  in  common  with  that 
of  Mr.  Murray.  Although  both  systems  were  founded  on 
Christ  and  the  authority  of  the  Scriptures,  yet  they  obtained 
their  result  from  very  different  modes  of  biblical  interpreta- 
tion and  reasoning.  Personally,  the  relations  between  the 
two  men  were  cordial  and  affectionate.  Even  before  they 
met  they  had  come  to  have  more  than  respect  for  each 
other.  In  Mr.  Murray's  second  letter  to  Mr.  Winchester, 
after  criticising  quite  sharply  a  pamphlet  which  the  latter 
had  just  published,  he  added :  "  When  we  agree  I  am 
pleased  ;  when  we  do  not  I  am  not  displeased.  I  think  you 
are  sincere,  and  I  am  attached  to  you."     When  they  first 

1  See  also  "  The  Process  and  Empire  of  Clirist,"  etc.  A  poem.  IJooks 
iii.,  v.,  viii.-xii. 


REV.   CALEB  RICH.  423 

met,  in  the  summer  of  1783,  Mr.  Winchester  was  confined 
to  his  bed  with  a  sickness  which  for  a  while  threatened 
fatal  results.  Mr.  Murray  was  completely  won  by  Mr.  Win- 
chester's personal  meekness,  affectionate  temper,  and  warm 
Christian  sympathy,  and  nothing  ever  interrupted  their  es- 
teem and  love  for  each  other.  Their  immediate  followers 
had  not  as  much  forbearance.  Mr.  Winchester's  adherents 
regarded  the  doctrine  of  Mr.  Murray  as  encouraging  Anti- 
nomianism  and  as  unfavorable  to  holiness.  They,  on  the 
other  hand,  were  accused  of  proposing  salvation  by  works, 
purgatorial  purification,  instead  of  by  a  gospel  of  free  and 
"  finished  "  justification.^  Mr.  Murray  himself,  although  at 
times,  when  it  required  no  little  magnanimity  on  his  part, 
treating  the  opinions  of  his  contemporary  with  hearty  toler- 
ance, could  not  suppress  at  others  his  deep  dislike,  no  little 
irritation,  and  a  sore  jealousy  of  its  encroachments  among 
those  who  were,  led  away  from  Rellyanism  by  it.- 

Still   another  form    of  Universalism  was   advocated   in 
western  Massachusetts  and  adjacent  towns  in  the  southern 

fpart  of  New  Hampshire.  Its  chief,  if  not  sole,  public  advo- 
cate was  Rev.  Caleb  Rich,  a  native  of  Sutton,  Mass.,  born 
August  12,  1750.  His  parents  were  strict  Congregation- 
alists,  and  he  was  in  very  early  life  tortured  and  tormented 
by  the  fear  of  hell.  "  I  often,"  he  said,  "  looked  upon  in- 
sects and  poisonous  reptiles,  thinking  how  much  better  their 
lot  was  in  this  world  than  mine."  Before  he  attained  iiis 
majority  his  father  became  a  Baptist,  his  mother  still  re- 
maining in  the  old  communion.  The  diversity  of  religious 
opinion  at  home  and  the  discourses  that  he  heard  at  the 
different  churches  which  the  family  now  attended,  together 
with  his  hearing  it  said  that  there  were  more  than  a  hun- 
dred different  Christian  denominations,  made  him  feel  that 

1   Murray's  "  Letters,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  II2;  vol.  iii.,  p.  358. 

-  //'/(/.,  vol.  i.,  p.  349;  vol.  ii.,  pp.  130,  264;  vol.  iii.,  p.  358. 


424  THE    U\I]-ERSALISTS.  [Chap.  v. 

he  stood  but  little  chance  of  getting  at  the  truth  from  two 
only.  He  therefore  resolved  to  study  the  Bible  for  himself, 
earnestly  praying  God  to  enlighten  him.  Having  practiced 
this  several  years,  and  meanwhile  taking  up  a  farm  in  War- 
wick, he  associated  himself  with  the  Baptists,  not  yet  fully 
convinced  just  what  the  Scriptures  taught,  but  believing 
that  he  ought  to  do  his  share  in  supporting  some  Christian 
congregation.  At  last  he  took  up  a  notion  from  the  third 
chapter  of  Genesis,  that  "  all  men  who  were  created  in 
Adam,  and  fell  in  or  died  in  him,  would  infallibly  be  re- 
stored and  made  alive  in  Christ,  while  those  who  were 
added  to  our  first  parents  after  their  fall  would  cease  to 
exist  after  the  death  of  the  body."  These  views  he  has- 
tened to  communicate  to  his  Baptist  associates,  hoping  they 
would  be  accepted  by  them,  as  they  had  been  by  himself, 
as  a  relief  of  the  apprehension  of  the  endless  sufTering  of 
any  ;  but  they  caused  commotion,  roused  great  opposition, 
and  the  result  was  that  baptism  was  refused  to  Caleb  and 
to  his  brother  Nathaniel,  who  had  joined  him  in  sentiment, 
and  they  were  not  permitted  even  to  belong  to  the  society. 
With  one  other  sympathizer  with  their  views  they  formed 
a  society,  and  before  the  year  closed  seven  others  had  united 
with  them. 

The  War  for  Independence  beginning  soon  after  this, 
Mr.  Rich  went  to  Lexington,  and  having  obtained  a  sub- 
stitute for  the  eight  months  of  his  term  of  enlistment,  re- 
mained during  that  period  with  a  relative  at  Oxford. 
Others  coming  into  his  views,  they  held  meetings  at  Ox- 
ford and  in  neighboring  towns,  where  they  associated  forty 
or  fifty  with  them  in  their  belief.  Returning  to  Warwick 
when  the  eight  months  had  expired,  his  views  were  enlarged 
in  April,  i ']']%,  and  he  was  satisfied  that  there  was  "evidence 
i  for  his  belief  "  that  the  first  Adam,  and  every  individual 
of  his  posterity  from  the  beginning  of  the  world  to  the  end. 


REV.   CALEB  RICH.  425 

did  as  truly  and  positively  pass  with  and  in  Christ  from 
death  to  life,  and  became  heirs  of  the  inheritance."  In 
I  reaching  this  conclusion  he  claimed  help  from  dreams  or 
visions,  and  in  like  manner  was  persuaded  that  he  was 
^called  to  preach.  In  May,  1778,  he  began  his  career  as  a 
})reacher  at  Warwick,  soon  extending  his  labors  to  Jaffrey 
and  Richmond,  N.  H.  A  meeting  of  a  General  Society 
was  shortly  after  called  at  Richmond,  a  regular  church  was 
formed  and  three  deacons  appointed,  one  from  each  of  the 
three  towns  represented  in  it.  This  organization  antedates 
that  at  Gloucester  about  a  year.  Church  discipline  was 
I  established  and  an  annual  meeting  was  appointed  at  Rich- 
Imond,  at  which  letters  of  license  to  preach  were  given,  and 
Y)rdinations  were  solemnized.  "  At  one  of  these  annual 
meetings,"  says  Mr.  Rich,  "  after  I  had  preached  about 
three  years,  it  was  agreed  that  brother  C.  Rich  should  re- 
ceive public  ordination  as  minister  of  the  United  Society 
of  Warwick,  Richmond,  and  Jaffrey,  and  wherever  he  should 
be  called  by  Divine  Providence.  We  sent  for  Elder  Adams 
Streeter  to  assist  at  said  ordination.  Said  Streeter  had 
been  ordained  in  the  Baptist  order.  His  faith  was  increased 
till  it  became  Abrahamic,  and  accordingly  the  ordination 
was  attended  in  Richmond,  accompanied  with  about  three 
hundred  people."  '  In  1803  Mr.  Rich  removed  to  New 
Haven,  Vt.,  where  he  died  in  1821.  After  his  leaving 
Warwick  we  have  no  knowledge  how  long  the  "  United 
Society  "  kept  up  its  organization  ;  nor  have  we  any  further 
j)articulars  with  regard  to  its  rules.  Mr.  Rich  drew  up  a 
creed  to  which  its  members  subscribed,  but  no  trace  of  it 
can  be  found.  He  was  an  original  tliinker,  and  his  views 
underwent  several  modifications  as  to  the  method  of  salva- 
tion.     The  theory  which   he  settled    on  some   little    timq. 

'  Autobiography.     Published  in  "  The  Candid  Examiner,"  Montrose,  Pa., 
1827. 


426  THE    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chap,  w 

prior  to  his  leaving  Warwick,  and  which  he  ever  after  ad- 
vocated, was  that  man  was  first  created  in  Christ  Jesus,  and 
then  formed  of  the  dust;  and  that  as  he  stood  related  to 
the  earth  of  Adam  only  he  sinned.  Hence  sin,  as  we  call 
it,  to  use  his  own  words,  "  originated  solely  in  the  flesh  and 
blood,  and  ended  with  the  same.  The  spirit,  being  of  heav- 
enly origin,  remained  pure,  though  blended  with  carnal 
bodies :  as  pure  metals  were  the  same  before  being  sepa- 
rated from  the  earth  or  dross  as  afterward ;  as  wheat  was 
the  same  before  being,  separated  from  the  chafl",  etc." 


CHAPTER  VI. 

HOSEA  BALLOU  AND  PROGRESS. 

The  most  eminent  and  influential  of  all  the  preachers 
of  Universalism  was  Rev.  Hosea  l^allou,  the  son  of  Rev, 
Maturin  Ballou,  pastor  of  a  Baptist  church  in  Richmond, 
N.  H.,  where  Hosea  was  born  on  April  30,  1771.  Just 
before  reaching-  his  nineteenth  year,  he  became  the  subject 
of  a  revival  and  united  with  the  church  of  which  his  father 
was  the  pastor.  It  was  not  long  after  this  that  his  atten- 
tion was  drawn  to  the  subject  of  Universalism,  by  con\'er- 
sation  with  several  who  'occasionally  listened  to  the  preach- 

\ing  of  Rev.  Caleb  Rich.      Incited  by  their  discourse,  he 
Vsoon,  by  reading  and  studying  the  Holy  Scriptures,  became 

^a  Universalist.  He  then  went  to  reside  with  his  brother 
David,  who  had  entered  the  Universalist  ministry ;  and 
with  some  assistance  from  him  in  investigating  the  Bible, 
and  at  his  solicitation,  Hosea  preached  his  first  sermon 
in  I  791.  His  friends  who  heard  him  "had  their  doubts 
whether  he  had  a  talent  for  such  labor."  His  second  at- 
tempt was  a  complete  failure ;  but  he  persevered,  and  al- 
most immediately  gave  his  entire  time  to  the  work  of  the 
ministry,  and  continued  uninterruptedly  in  it  for  nearly 
sixty-two  years. 

It  was  not  until  1796,  just  pre\ious  to  his  marriage,  that 

j  Mr.  Ballou  made  his  first  settlement  as  a  pastor,  in  that 

Ipart  of  the  town  of  Hardwick,  Mass.,  now  called  Dana. 
The  preceding  five  years  had  been  variously  employed,  an 
earlv  portion  of  them  on  his  brother's  farm  in  summer,  and 

427 


428  THE   UNIVERSA LISTS.  [Chap.  vi. 

preaching  as  opportunity  offered,  in  scliool-houses,  private 
dwellings,  and  rarely  in  meeting-houses,  in  the  winter.  He 
afterward  went  into  the  southern  section  of  Massachusetts 
and  the  northern  part  of  Rhode  Island,  preaching  wherever 
he  could  find  an  open  door,  and  providing  for  his  mainte- 
nance by  school-teaching,  sometimes  in  public  and  some- 
times in  private  schools,  a  portion  of  the  time  in  Bellingham, 
Mass.,  and  a  portion  in  Foster  and  Gloucester,  R.  I.  He 
was  present  at  the  organization  of  the  "  Convention  of  the 
New  England  States,"  in  1793,  and  at  nearly  every  annual 
session  thereafter  for  fifty  years.  At  tlie  session  in  1 794 
at  Oxford,  Mass.,  he  first  met  Rev.  Elhanan  Winchester, 
and  was  in  the  pulpit  with  him  and  with  the  Rev.  Joab 
Young  when  Mr.  Winchester  preached  on  that  occasion. 
Mr.  Ballou,  not  being  a  settled  pastor,  had  not  sought  or- 
dination, and  nothing  had  been  said  about  it,  at  least  not 
in  his  hearing,  during  the  session ;  -but  as  Mr.  Winchester 
drew  near  the  close  of  his  discourse,  it  was  apparent  that 
his  words  were  having  reference  to  an  ordination  service, 
particularly  to  the  delivery  of  the  Scriptures  to  the  candi- 
date. Taking  up  the  Bible  and  pressing  it  against  the 
breast  of  the  young  man,  he  said,  "  Brother  Ballou,  I  press 
to  your  heart  the  written  Jehovah!"  Holding  the  sacred 
volume  thus  for  a  moment,  while  the  congregation  were 
deeply  moved  by  the  solemn  and  unexpected  scene,  Mr. 
Winchester  said  to  Mr.  Young  in  an  imperative  but  affec- 
tionate tone,  "  Brother  Young,  charge  him,"  which  he  at 
once  did  with  fervid  eloquence. 

Mr.  Ballou  was  an  original  and  fearless  thinker,  and  had 
by  this  time,  according  to  his  biographer,  become  a  Uni- 
tarian in  his  views  as  to  the  relation  of  the  Father  and  the 
Son.^  His  own  declaration  is,  that  his  brother  and  himself, 
in  embracing  Universalism,  "  were  both  Calvinistic  at  first. 

1  Wliittemore's  "  Life  of  Hosea  Ballou,"  vol.  i.,  p.  Ii8. 


UNITARIAN   UNI  VERSA  LISM.  429 

I  remained  so  but  a  short  time."  Tlie  first  notice  we  have 
seen  of  his  public  utterance  on  the  doctrine  of  "  Christ's 
subordination  to  the  Father,"  and  that  the  atonement  was 
made  for  the  purpose  of  changing  man  instead  of  God, 
was  in  a  sermon  preached  in  1795.  As  we  have  noted  in 
the  immediately  preceding  chapter,  there  was  Unitarian 
Universalism  and  a  Unitarian  Universalist  creed  adopted 
by  some  New  Jersey  Universalists  two  years  earlier  than 
this,  but  its  influence  seems  to  have  been  limited  and 
ephemeral.  Mr.  Ballou's  theory,  however,  exerted  a  pow- 
erful and  lasting  influence  and  changed  the  thought  of 
the  Universalist  body  at  large.  "As  early  as  1805  the 
work  may  be  said  to  have  been  completed,  though  Mr. 
Murray  at  Boston,  and  Mr.  Mitchell  at  New  York,  still 
maintained  the  former  views  with  great  strenuousness. 
But  from  this  time  onward,  the  Universalist  ministry  in 
this  country  has,  with  only  three  or  four  exceptions,  pub- 
licly avowed  and  often  defended  Unitarian  sentiments  upon 
these  points,  both  in  the  pulpit  and  from  the  press."  ^  This 
general  avowal  and  defense  of  Unitarian  views  antedates 
some  ten  years  their  public  avowal  and  defense  by  the 
Unitarian  denomination  as  a  distinct  sect.- 

At  the  second  session  of  the  New  England  Convention, 
in  I  794,  it  adopted  the  Plan  of  Church  Government  and 
Articles  of  Faith  formed  by  the  Philadelphia  Convention 
in  I  790.  But  that  Plan,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  a  form 
for  individual  churches,  and  made  no  provision  for  the 
duties  and  government  of  a  convention  of  the  churches. 
It  is  probable,  also,  since  the  Records  do  not  contain  the 
Plan  and  Articles,  that  few  copies  were  in  circulation  be- 
yond tlie  limits  of  the  Philadelphia  Convention,  and  con- 

1  Ilosea  Hallou,  2il,  D.I).,  on  the  "  Dogmatic  and  Religious  History  of 
Universalism  in  America."  "  Universalist  Quarterlv, "  vol.  v.,  pp.  79  ff. 
(1848). 

2  Dr.  Allen's  "  History  of  the  Unitarians,"  p.  192  f.,  this  volume. 


430  THE    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  vi. 

sequently  there  was  not  much  familiarity  with  them.  Be 
that  as  it  may,  the  New  England  Convention  had  its  at- 
tention called  to  the  need  of  laws  for  its  own  government, 
and  provision  for  some  uniform  declaration  and  rule  in 
regard  to  the  ordaining  of  ministers.  It  also,  in  view  of 
existing  "  diversities  of  opinion  in  some  points  of  doctrine," 
saw  the  necessity  of  uniting,  if  possible,  on  certain  essen- 
tials in  faith  and  practice. 

The  laws  of  the  State  of  Vermont  were  somewhat  exact- 
ing, or  at  least  were  so  interpreted,  on  the  subject  of  or- 
dination, and  certain  privileges  in  a  section  of  land  called 
"The  Minister's  Right"  were  guaranteed  by  them  to  the 
first  settled  ordained  minister  in  any  town.      Certificates 
of  ordination  were  demanded  of  all  new-comers,  and  what 
was  known  as  "The  Standing  Order"  of  that  State  was 
constantly  making  trouble  if  such  certificates  could  not  be 
produced,  or  if,  when  furnished,  they  seemed  to  show  any 
irregularities  of  mode  in  the  case  of  persons  claiming  to 
be  of  the  same  sect.      Mr.  Rich  and  Mr.  Ballon,  in  moving 
into  Vermont,  were  obliged   to   be   reordained,  although 
the  former  had  received  the  rite  of  ordination  twenty-two 
years  before,  and  the  latter  nine  years  before.      Rev.  Wal- 
ter Ferriss,  who  moved   in  convention  that  a  committee'! 
be  appointed  "  to  form  a  plan  of  fellowship  in  faith  and( 
practice,"  had  his  right  to  marry  people  disputed,  although 
he  had  been  ordained  in  Vermont.      Mr.  F"erriss  and   Mr. 
Ballon  were  placed  on  the  committee  thus  created,  and  the  : 
following  year  they  reported  "  that  Profession  of  Belief  n 
which  we  agree  in  as  essential,  and  that  plan  of  ecclesiasti-  \^ 
cal  fellowship  and  general  association  which  we  as  a  Chris-  j 
tian  association  conceive  we  ought  to  maintain."      On  the 
vote  to  adopt  what  was  presented  there  were  but  two  voices 
in  opposition,  and  one  of  these  was  that  of  a  preacher  re- 
siding in  Pennsylvania,  and   tlierefore   not  a  member  of 


''THE   IVIXCIIESTEK   rROEESSIO.Xr  431 

the  New  England  Convention.  Of  his  action,  Rev.  George 
Richards,  a  member  of  the  convention,  said :  "  It  was  a 
subject  of  which  he  could  not  judge,  and  with  which  hei 
had  no  manner  of  business." 

This  action  was  taken  at  the  annual  session  of  the  con- 
vention held  at  Winchester,  N.  H.,  in  September,  1803.  and 
the  Profession  of  Belief  is,  from  the  place  in  which  it  was 
adopted,  known  as  "  The  Winchester  Profession."  It  is  a 
brief  and  comprehensive  statement,  and  is  to  the  present 
day  the  basis  of  fellowship  of  preachers  and  churches.  It 
is  expressed  in  three  articles,  as  follows : 

"  I.  We  believe  that  the  Holy  Scriptures  of  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments  contain  a  revelation  of  the  character 
of  God,  and  of  the  duty,  interest,  and  final  destination  of 
mankind. 

"  II.  We  believe  that  there  is  one  God,  whose  nature,  is 
Lo\-e,  revealed  in  one  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  by  one  Holy 
Spirit  of  Grace,  who  will  finally  restore  the  whole  family 
I'of  mankind  to  holiness  and  happiness. 

"  III.   We  believe  that  holiness  and  true  happiness  are 
[inseparably  connected,  and  that  believers  ought  to  be  care- 
ful to  maintain  order  and  practice  good  works;  for  these 
things  are  good  and  profitable  unto  men." 

There  is  a  tradition  among  Universalists,  held  for  a  long 
time,  and  supported  by  very  late  utterances  of  persons  in 
attendance  on  and  participating  in  the  action  of  the  con- 
vention in  1803,  that  our  fathers  of  that  day  were  greatly 
averse  to  all  creeds  and  adopted  the  foregoing  only  because 
they  supposed  they  must  in  order  to  obtain  legal  standing 
and  exemption  from  taxation  for  the  support  of  the  minis- 
try of  the  "  Standing  Order,"  or  Congregationalists  of  New 
Hampshire.  As  was  the  case  at  Gloucester,  Mass.,  persons 
attending  Universalist  ministrations  in  New  Hampshire 
were  taxed  for  the  support  of  the  "  Standing  Order,"  and 


432  THE    UNIVEKSALISTS.  [Chap.  vi. 

on  appeal  to  the  courts  were  compelled  to  pay,  on  the 
ground  that  Universalists  were  not  a  sect  distinct  from  the 
Congregationalists.  This  decision  was  not  made  in  igno- 
rance of  the  fact  that  Universalists  differed  from  Congrega- 
tionalists in  theological  opinions  ;  but  wholly  on  the  ground 
— singular  as  it  may  now  seem — that  Universalists  were 
"  Congregationalists  in  the  sense  of  being  a  sect  of  inde- 
pendent parishes."  "  Presbyterians  and  Congregational- 
ists," it  was  decided  in  another  case  brought  into  court, 
"  are  different  sects  within  the  meaning  of  the  Constitution, 
because  they  differ  in  church  government  and  discipline, 
though  they  agree  in  doctrinal  belief.  .  .  .  Generally  speak- 
ing, the  Universalists  have  no  distinct  formulary  of  govern- 
ment and  discipline.  In  large  towns  they  sometimes  as- 
sociate and  worship  together.  But  embracing  this  tenet 
makes  in  general  no  more  difference  as  to  the  form  of 
church  government  and  discipline  than  embracing  the  Cal~ 
vinist,  Arminian,  Hopkinsian  opinions  does."^ 

No  adoption  of  a  creed  could  possibly  create  exemption 
under  such  ruling.  Nor  does  it  appear  that  the  churches 
or  societies  lost  any  of  their  independence  by  joining  with 
others  in  adopting  a  plan  of  organization  for  a  con\-ention. 
Relief  from  unjust  taxation  came  from  an  altogether  differ- 
ent source — the  action  of  the  New  Hampshire  legislature, 
in  1805,  in  passing  a  resolution  declaring  Uni\-ersalists  a 
religious  sect  entitled  to  the  constitutional  privileges  and  1 
immunities.  The  Winchester  Profession  of  Belief  was  a 
general  statement  of  faith  in  which  Murray,  the  followers' 
of  Winchester,  and  the  Sarjant,  Rich,  and  Ballou  Unitarian 
Universalists  could  all  join  without  tlie  compromise  of  in- 
dividual convictions,  and  which  all  could  therefore  unite i 
in  defending.  While  it  was  sufficiently  definite  to  exclude 
the  possibility  of  mistaking  its  most  prominent  thought,  the 
1  MS.  decision  of  Chief-Justice  Smith,  in  Muzzy  vs.  Wilkins. 


''PLAN  OF  ASSOC! A  77 OX."  433 

reconciliation  of  all  souls  to  God,  it  was  sufificiently  liberal 
in  all  its  statements  to  be  acceptable  alike  to  Trinitarian 
and  to  Unitarian,  to  the  believer  in  future  punishment  and 
to  the  beliexer  that  the  consequences  of  sin  were  confined 
to  this  life.  ^ 

In  regard  to  the  question  of  ordination,  so  important  to 
the  Vermont  preachers,  the  convention  refused  to  require 
a  uniform  mode,  but  made  the  following  the  section  in  its 
"  Plan  of  Association  "  : 

"  8th.  Ordination's  during  the  recess  of  the  convention 
shall  be  conducted  as  heretofore,  at  such  times  and  in  such 
places  and  manner  as  attendant  circumstances  and  good 
order  may  require,  and  due  and  seasonable  report  thereof 
shall  be  made  to  the  Association,  in  convention." 

Indeed,  there  was  nothing  either  in  the  creed  or  in  the 
"  Plan  of  Association "  that  seemed  intended  for  legal 
effect,  or  that  differed  materially  from  independency.  The 
particular  "  Associations  "  which  were  .speedily  organized 
in  various  sections  of  the  country,  some  of  them  in  the 
New  England  States,  granted  letters  of  fellowship,  con- 
ferred ordination,  and  generally  exercised  coordinate  pow- 
ers with  what  in  1804  became  "the  General  Convention  j 
of  the  New  England  States  and  others  "  ;  and  the  churches 
generally  continued  to  conduct  their  affairs  independently  ■ 
of  each  other.' 

Mr.  Ballou's  career  as  an  author  began  in  1804,  when  j 
he  put  before  the  public  his  "  Notes  on  the  Parables,"  a 
work  which  showed  a  mind  somewhat  trammeled  by  Rel- 
lyan  and  Antinomian  views,  and  not  a  little  under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  notions  of  Caleb  Rich,  that  man,  created  in 
the  divine  image  as  to  his  higher  nature,  was  formed,  by 
virtue  of  his  flesh  and  blood,  under  a  law  of  condemnation, 

1   For  a  full  examination  of  all  these  matters,  sec  my  "  Universalism  in 
America,"  vol.  ii.,  cliaj).  i. 


434  ^'-^^^    UXIVEKSALISl'S.  [Chap.  \'i. 

and  was  subject  to  a  carnal  guidance.  He  soon  outgrew 
these  tenets,  but  did  not  revise  the  work  until  the  publica- 
tion of  the  fifth  edition  in  1832. 

The  next  year  (1805)  he  published  "A  Treatise  on 
Atonement,"  a  wonderful  book  for  its  day,  and  in  many 
respects  unsurpassed  by  anything  that  has  since  been 
written  on  the  subject.  It  is  by  far  the  ablest  work  he 
ever  wrote,  and  as  an  argument  against  the  dogmas  of  the 
Trinity  and  substitutional  sacrifice,  and  in  favor  of  univer- 
sal salvation,  is  superior  in  its  plainness  and  force  to  many 
of  the  arguments  of  confessedly  better  educated  scholars. 
But,  like  the  former  work,  its  early  editions  were  greatly 
disfigured  by  the  author's  philosophy,  derived  from  Rich, 
concerning  man's  twofold  state,  the  created  and  the  formed  ; 
and  by  Rellyan  phraseology  and  the  accompanying  fan- 
tastic interpretations  of  Scripture.  The  author  outgrew 
all  these,  and  in  1832  re\'ised  the  work,  though  hurriedly, 
omitting  the  more  direct  statements  of  his  old  notions,  still 
leaving  so  much  mixed  in  the  very  texture  of  the  work  as 
to  demand  for  it  a  thorough  editing  in  the  light  of  and  in 
harmony  with  his  Jinal  views.  The  book  was  written  in 
the  winter  of  1804-05,  and  was  no  doubt  published  in  the 
spring  or  early  summer.  The  work  by  Rev.  John  Sher- 
man,' of  Mansfield,  Conn.,  generally  supposed  to  have 
been  the  first  Unitarian  book  published  in  America,  was 
issued  a  few  months  later. 

Although  in  the  introduction  to  the  treatise  Mr.  Ballou 
seems  inclined  to  set  the  doctrine  of  future  punishment 
aside,  except  for  sins  which  might  be  committed  in  that 
future,  it  cannot  be  said  that  he  was  at  that  time  fully 
prepared  to  deny  it  altogether.  And  it  is  very  certain 
that  he  argued  for  reconciliation  after  death,  on  the  ground 
of  our  moral  nature.  "  If  the  soul,"  he  says,  "  continues 
1  "  One  God  in  One  Person  Only,"  etc.     Worcester,  September,  1805. 


''TREATISE   ON  ATO.XEMENT:'  435 

a  rational  being,  cannot  the  All-wise  communicate  knowl- 
edge to  it  out  of  the  natural  body  as  well  as  he  can  in  it? 
If  the  soul,  after  death,  has  a  moral  existence,  it  must  be 
a  subject  oi  moral  principles  and  stand  accountable  to  a 
moral  law  adapted  to  its  moral  capacity ;  and  it  must  be  as 
much  the  duty  of  souls  hereafter  to  yield  obedience  to 
God  as  it  is  while  in  the  body ;  and  to  preclude  the  possi- 
bility of  such  obedience  would  be  a  dishonor  to  such  a  law. 
To  deny  the  existence  of  those  moral  principles  in  the 
world  to  come  is  denying  the  existence  of  rational  hap- 
piness or  punishment.  My  opponent  will  say,  '  If  God  has 
revealed  to  us  in  the  Scriptures  of  truth  that  he  will  not 
afford  any  privilege  after  death  to  those  who  do  not  be- 
come true  converts  to  Christ  in  this  world,  we  have  no 
right  to  say  the  reverse,  however  much  our  reason  may  be 
put  to  confusion.'  I  answer,  'That  may  be  granted  with- 
out injury  to  my  argument,  as  no  such  revelation  has  been 
made;  when  it  is,  it  will  be  early  enough  to  believe  it'" 
(pp.  253  fl). 

But  the  chief  excellence  of  the  "  Treatise  on  Atonement," 
and  at  that  time  its  novelty  also,  was  the  manner  in  which 
it  demonstrated  from  the  Scriptures  that  the  atonement 
was  a  moral  and  not  a  legal  work;  and  that  its  purpose 
was  the  reconciliation  of  man  to  God,  and  not  the  reconcil- 
ing of  God  to  man  ;  that  it  had  nothing  to  do  with  chang- 
ing the  law,  or  the  penalty  of  the  law  of  God  with  regard 
to  human  deserts,  in  no  way  interfered  with  the  claims  of 
justice,  and  was  no  scheme  for  averting  the  wrath  of  God 
from  the  guilty  by  letting  its  vengeance  fall  on  the  inno- 
cent. It  showed  that  while  Christ  labored  and  suffered 
for  man.  he  did  not  suflfer  instead  of  man;  that  the  de- 
mands of  justice  were  no  bar  to  salvation,  but  that  e\ery 
sinner  must  bear  the  penalty  of  his  own  disobedience,  and 
that  the  penalty  is  no  less  an  indication  of  God's  love  than 


436  THE    UNIVERSALISJS.  [Chap.  vi. 

is  the  reward  of  well-doing.  The  reconciling,  the  at-one- 
ing  work  of  Christ  is  the  bringing  of  man  into  harmony 
with  God,  a  moral  and  spiritual  result  produced  in  the 
sinner,  who  needs  changing,  not  a  scheme  or  effort  for 
changing  the  unchangeable  God,  nor  for  turning  aside  any 
penalty  of  his  perfect  law.  It  is  the  manifestation  of  God's 
love,  not  a  device  for  transferring  the  demand  of  his  wrath, 
justice — or  by  whatever  other  word  we  may  call  his  recog- 
nition of  the  desert  of  sin — from  the  guilty  to  the  inno- 
cent. Christ  reconciles  man  to  God,  to  obedience  to  his 
law,  to  resignation  to  his  will.  And  this  he  does  by  his 
teachings,  his  example,  his  cross,  all  these  being  the  full 
and  perfect  revelation  of  what  God  is,  and  of  his  unceas- 
ing love  to  all  made  in  his  image. 

All  this  was  rank  heresy  in  1805.  Sixty  years  later 
Rev.  Dr.  Bushnell,  taking  substantially  the  same  ground, ^ 
and  later  still,  the  Andover  Controversy,  revealing  .how 
extensively  the  moral  theory  of  atonement  prevails,  show 
that,  whether  confessed  or  ignored,  the  influence  of  Hosea 
Ballon 's  thought  has  been  pervasive  and  powerful.  ' 

Omitting  for  the  present  further  notice  of  theological 
opinions,  we  may  hurriedly  glance  at  the  progress  of  the 
denomination  in  the  several  States.  To  economize  space, 
we  refer  the  reader  to  volume  i.  of  this  series  for  statistics 
to  date. 

Members  of  the  Pearce  family,  the  adherents  of  Mr. 
Murray  in  Gloucester,  Mass.,  founded  the  town  of  New 
Gloucester,  in  the  then  district  of  Maine,  about  i  790.  In 
a  few  years  they  induced  Rev.  Thomas  Barns  to  visit  them 
and  finally  to  throw  in  his  lot  with  them.  Societies  were 
speedily  organized,  which  in  1 799  were  sufficiently  nu- 
merous to  form  the  Eastern  Association.  In  1820,  when 
the  district  became  an  independent  State,  there  was  fresh 
zeal  manifest,  and  as  a  result  societies  sprung  up  all  over 


AV    '/■///:    STATES.  437 

the  territory.  The  Eastern  Association  became  a  State 
Convention,  and  four  associations  were  established,  eachj 
having  six  delegates  as  their  representatives  in  the  con- 
vention. The  number  of  associations  increasing,  the  con- 
vention some  years  later  remodeled  them  and  reduced  their 
number  to  six. 

In  New  Hampshire,  as  shown  in  chapter  iv.,  Mr.  Murray 
preached  at  an  early  day,  and  Noah  Parker,  a  Rellyan, 
was  induced  by  Mr.  Murray  to  become  a  preacher  in  1777. 
He  at  once  gathered  a  congregation  in  Portsmouth,  and 
remained  over  it  until  his  death,  ten  years  later.  Early  in 
this  century,  as  we  have  seen  in  this  chapter,  Universalists 
were  recognized  as  a  distinct  sect  by  the  legislature.  In, 
1824  the  societies  organized  two  associations,  subsequently! 
increasing  the  number  to  six.  The  State  Convention  was 
organized  in  1832. 

Vermont  was  visited  by  Universalist  preachers  as  early 
^^  1795.  but  although  an  association  was  formed  in  1804, 
we  have  very  little  knowledge  of  either  preachers  or 
churches  until  1820.  In  1829  there  were  about  fifty  so- 
cieties and  twenty  preachers.  .  Several  associations  were 
organized,-  and  a  State  Convention  was  formed  in  1833. 

Of  the  early  Universalist"  movement  in  Massachusetts 
we  have  already  spoken.  Associations  were  organized  at 
an  early  date,  and  in  all  six  were  created  when  the  State 
Convention  was  formed  in  1834.  A  Sunday-school  Asso- 
ciation organized  in  1837,  and  a  Home  Missionary  Society  1 
in  185  I.  These  were  merged  in  the  reorganized  State  Con-  [ 
vention  in  1859. 

Mr.  Murray  also  preached  often  in  various  parts  of  Con- 
necticut prior  to  1 800.  Society  organizations  were  created 
early.  Associations  and  a  State  Convention  were  formed, 
the  former  in  1827  and  the  Convention  in  1832. 

Rhode    Island    had    no    Universalist   ors^anization    until 


438  THE    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chai-.  vi. 

1820,  although  there  were  many  scattered  believers  nearly 
if  not  quite  forty  years  earlier,  and  those  in  Providence  had 
a  delegate  at  the  Oxford  Association  in  1785.  The  State 
Convention  was  originally  organized  in  1838,  an  association 
having  preceded  it  in  1827. 

There  was  occasional  preaching  in  the  city  of  New  York 
by  Mr.  Murray  before  he  became  a  resident  of  Gloucester. 
The  first  organization  was  in  1796.  About  the  same  time 
there  was  preaching  in  Dutchess  County,  "  Elders  Michael 
Cofifin  and  Joab  Young"  having  been  appointed  mission- 
aries by  the  New  England  Convention.      In  the  summer  of 

1802,  Rev.  John  Taylor,  of  Deerfield,  Mass.,  made  a  mis- 
sionary journey  "  to  the  northern  counties  in  the  State  of 
New  York,  in  compliance  with  the  desire  of  the  Mission- 
ary Society  in  the  County  of  Hampshire."  His  journaH 
mentions  that  he  found  Universalists  in  several  places 
through  which  he  passed,  as  Norway,  Clinton,  Sandy  Creek, 
etc.  They  were  originally  from  Rhode  Island,  New  Jersey, 
and  Connecticut.  The  same  year  Rev.  Edwin  Ferriss,  a 
Universalist  preacher,  visited  the  town  of  Butternuts,  Ot- 
sego County,  and  delivered  his  message.  The  next  year 
he  went  there  to  reside,  continuing  his  ministry  there  and 
in  the  neighboring  settlements.  The  first  organization 
west  of  New  York  City  w^as  at  Hard  wick,  Otsego  County, 
in  1803.  Rev.  Nathaniel  Stacy — "an  Israelite  indeed,  in 
whom  was  no  guile  " — whose  parents  were  among  the 
earliest  supporters  of  John  Murray,  in  Gloucester,  Mass., 
became  connected  with  the  New  England  Convention  in 

1803,  and  two  years  later  took  up  his  abode  in  Hamilt<.)n, 
Madison  County,  N.  Y.  In  1805  he  was  sent  to  the  con- 
vention to  seek  advice  in  regard  to  the  organization  of  an 
association  in  the   State  of   New  York.      It  was  deemed 

^   Puljlished  in  full  in  the  "  Documentary  History  of  New  York,"  vol.  iii., 
pp.   1 107  ff. 


STATE    ORGANIZATIOXS.  439 

advisable  to  make  such  an  organization,  and  the  conven- 
tion appointed  Rev.  Messrs.  Hosea  Ballou,  William  Fare- 
well, and  Joshua  Flagg-  to  attend  and  assist  in  the  work. 
For  several  years  thereafter  similar  committees  were  ap- 
pointed to  meet  with  the  \'arious  associations  at  their  an- 
nual sessions.  Such  a  trip,  from  Boston  to  Central  New 
York  and  return,  in  those  days  involved  a  journey  of  not 
less  than  six  hundred  miles,  generally  by  private  convey- 
ance, and  an  absence  from  home  of  not  less  than  a  fort- 
night. These  visits  were  made,  too,  at  their  own  charges ; 
but  it  was  very  seldom  that  one  of  the  appointed  clergy- 
men failed  to  be  present.  These  were  rare  displays  of  zeal 
and  self- sacrifice.  The  association- thus  organized  (1806) 
embraced  in  its  territorial  limits  all  the  State  of  New 
YcM'k  lying  west  of  the  Hudson  River,  and  was  called  the 
"Western  Association."  Subsequently,  as  other  similar 
bodies  were  organized  in  the  State,  they  were  designated 
branches  of  the  parent  body.  The  original  association  is 
still  in  existence,  though  confined  to  narrow  bounds,  and 
bears  the  name  of  the  "  Central  Association."  The  rapid 
increase  of  these  bodies  suggested  the  desirability  of  a 
State  Convention,  and  one  was  formed  in  1826.' 

In  New  Jersey  Mr.  Murray  commenced  his  career  as  a 
Universalist  preacher  under  circumstances  fully  set  forth 
in  his  "  Life."  As  early  as  i  790  societies  had  been  organ- 
ized, and  made  no  inconsiderable  part  of  the  Philadelphia 
Convention.  A  State  Convention  was  formed  in  1845. 
Property  adjacent  to  the  site  of  the  meeting-house  in  which 
Murray  preached  his  first  sermon  in  America  is  now  owned 
by  the  convention,  and  on  it  a  Potter  Memorial  Church  was 
erected  in  1885. 

'  Tlic  details  of  tliis  liistfiry  of  Univcrsalisni  in  Xew  York  are  exceedingly 
interesting,  as  given  in  "  Historical  SUetchcs,"  hy  Rev.  S.  K.  Smith,  and  in 
the    '  Memoirs  of  Rev".  Nathaniel  Stacy." 


440  THE    VNIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  vi. 

The  beginnings  in  Pennsylvania  are  already  described. 
There  are  four  associations  in  the  State  and  a  conv^ention, 
organized  in  1832. 

Universalism  was  preached  in  Maryland,  but  only  oc- 
casionally, in  the  early  part  of  this  century.  It  was  first 
organized  there  in  Baltimore,  in  1831,  although  scattered 
Universalists  were  represented  in  the  Philadelphia  Con- 
vention much  earlier. 

In  Virginia,  societies,  or  perhaps  it  were  better  to  say 
preaching-places,  were  known  in  1795.  A  convention 
was  organized  in  1835,  but  the  recorcis  do  not  show  what 
societies  nor  how  many  composed  it. 

In  the  Carolinas  Universalism  never  gained  much  of  a 
foothold,  nor,  indeed,  in  any  slave-holding  State,  until  after 
the  war  of  1861-65.  One  or  two  societies  were  organized 
in  South  Carolina  about  18 10,  and  a  State  Convention  was 
formed  in  1830.  In  North  Carolina  our  faith  was  first 
proclaimed  in  1824.  A  State  Convention  was  organized 
in  1827  and  reorganized  in  1846. 

Universalism  was  first  preached  in  Georgia  in  1801,  in 
the  counties  of  Warren  and  Hancock.  It  is  not  known 
that  an  attempt  was  then  made  to  do  more  than  gather 
congregations.  No  organization  was  attempted  until  sev- 
eral years  later.  Two  associations  and  a  State  Convention 
were  organized  in  1838.  The  latter  was  reorganized  in 
1869. 

We  know  nothing  of  Universalism  in  Alabama  before 
1832.  Shortly  after  that  date  societies  were  organized. 
A  convention  was  formed  in  1858  and  reorganized  in  1870. 

The  first  attempt  at  organization  in  Florida  was  in  185  i. 
Something  was  gained  by  a  revived  movement  in  1861, 
and  then  the  war  brought  all  religious  enterprises  to  a 
standstill. 

In  Ohio  Universalism  was  first  preached  by  Rev.  Time- 


STATE    ORGAXT/.ATIOXS.  44 1 

thy  Bigelow,  in  18 14.  The  growth  of  the  denomhiation 
there  was  rapid.  Associations  were  speedily  formed  in 
various  parts  of  the  State,  and  a  convention  was  organized 
in  1827. 

The  first  UniversaHst  preaching  in  Indiana  was  in  1825  ; 
the  first  organization  about  1829.  The  first  association 
was  organized  in  1831,  which  has  been  followed  by  many 
others,  and  a  State  Convention  in  1837. 

In  Michigan  Universalism  was  first  preached  in  1829, 
and  the  organization  of  societies  began  in  1 830.  Five  asso- 
ciations have  been  formed,  and  a  State  Convention  in  1843. 

The  first  preacher  of  UniversaHsm  in  Illinois  was  the 
Rev.  George  Wolf,  a  Dunker,  in  18 12.  The  doctrine  of 
the  final  salvation  of  all  souls  was  always  prominent  in  his 
preaching.  The  first  preacher  in  the  fellowship  of  the 
UniversaHst  Convention  settled  in  Illinois  in  1835.  A 
State  Convention  was  organized  in  1837 — a  mass-meeting 
rather  than  a  delegate  body  until  1840. 

Universalism  gained  a  hearing  in  Kentucky  as  early  as 
1792,  when  a  division  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
resulted  in  some  of  their  preachers  becoming  Universalists.^ 
In  Lincoln  County  several  Baptists  became  Universalists 
in  I  793.  It  is  not  probable  that  lasting  results  followed. 
Organized  and  permanent  growth  began  about  18 19.  A 
State  Convention  was  organized  in  1843. 

UniversaHst  preachers  first  reached  Wisconsin  in  1840. 
The  first  society  was  organized  in  1842,  the  first  associa- 
tion in  1844,  and  the  State  Convention  in  1848. 

Iowa  had  its  first  UniversaHst  preaching  in  1837.  Its 
convention  organized  in  1843. 

The  pioneers  of  Universalism  in  Missouri  are  unknown, 
but  a  church  was  organized  in  1838.  Associations  fol- 
lowed, and  a  convention  in  1868. 

1  "Autohiograpliy  of  Rev.  t'ctcr  Cartwright,"  p.  40. 


442  THE    UNIVERSALlSrS.  [Chap.  vi. 

Our  first  preacher  in  Minnesota  began  his  work  in  1852. 
A  convention  was  organized  in  i860. 

Preaching  in  Kansas  began  in  1858  and  churches  were 
organized  in  1859.  The  field  was  nearly  deserted  during 
the  war,  but  reoccupied  at  its  close,  and  a  convention  or- 
ganized in  1869. 

Nebraska  had  its  first  preaching  in  1868,  its  first  church 
organization  in  1871,  and  a  State  Conference  in  1880. 

In  Mississippi  Universalism  was  probably  first  preached 
in  1840.  A  convention  was  formed  in  1859,  but  since  the 
war  very  little  has  been  done. 

In  Texas  pioneer  work  was  done  as  early  as  1850.  The 
first  society  was  formed  in  1855  ;  convention  organized  in 
1891. 

In  Tennessee  no  little  stir  was  made  favorable  to  the 
spread  of  Universalism  by  the  conversion  of  two  Methodist 
preachers  in  1841,  and  the  expulsion  of  a  layman  from  a 
Presbyterian  Church  in  1843.  A  few  societies  were  or- 
ganized, and  recently  a  vigorous  movement  resulted  in  es- 
tablishing a  flourishing  church  in  the  new  prohibitory  city 
of  Harriman. 

How  much  had  been  done  for  the  spread  of  Uni\-ersalism 
in  the  State  of  West  Virginia  while  it  was  part  of  the  Old 
Dominion,  we  are  not  able  to  say.  As  early  as  1843,  Rev. 
George  Rogers,  an  able  and  zealous  pioneer,  had  large 
congregations  in  Wheeling.  The  Halcyonists,  a  sect  long 
since  extinct,  many  of  whom  were  Universalists,  made 
quite  an  impression  as  early  as  18 16.  A  State  Conference 
was  organized  in  1891. 

In  California  there  were  a  few  Universalist  preacliers  as 
early  as  1849,  but  the  preaching  was  irregular  for  several 
years.      A  convention  was  organized  in  i860. 

The  first  Universalist  preaching  in  Oregon  was  by  a 
zealous  layman,  in  1868.      A  convention,  having  also  jur- 


STATE    ORGANIZATWXS.  443 

isdiction  over  the  churches  and  preachers  in  Washington, 
was  organized  in  1874. 

In  Idaho  the  first  church  was  organized  in  1877. 

In  '1878  a  parish  was  formed  in  Dakota,  and  a  State 
Conference  was  organized  in  North  Dakota  in  1893. 

In  Montana  organizations  were  created  in  1 892. 

UniversaHsm  was  preached  at  irregular  intervals  at 
Washington,  D.  C,  in  1827,  and  an  effort  was  made  to  or- 
ganize a  church  in  1 844,  but  no  permanent  results  were 
reached  until  the  close  of  the  war  in  1865.  A  parish  was 
formed  in  1869. 

UniversaHsm  was  first  proclaimed  in  Canada,  in  what  is 
now  the  Province  of  Ontario,  in  1832;  in  Lower  Canada, 
now  the  Province  of  Quebec,  in  1836.  Ontario  has  a  con- 
vention, and  the  churches  and  ministers  of  the  lower  prov- 
ince have  their  fellowship  with  the  Vermont  Convention. 

In  New  Brunswick  Unix'ersalism  was  first  preached 
about  1820.  The  congregation  at  St.  Stephen's  now  wor- 
ships with  the  church  in  Calais,  Me. 

The  first  Universalist  preaching  in  Nova  Scotia  was  by 
Rev.  William  Delancy,  who  left  the  orthodox  church  of 
which  he  was  a  pastor  and  organized  a  Universalist  society 
about  1833.  Four  years  later  an  independent  movement 
was  made  at  Halifax.  This  church  has  its  fellowship  with 
the  Vermont  Convention. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

AN    UNFORTUNATE    DIVISION. 

As  noted  in  the  preceding  chapter,  Mr.  Ballon,  who, 
after  the  publication  of  the  "  Treatise  on  Atonement,"  be- 
came the  acknowledged  leader  in  the  Universalist  Church, 
had  not  at  that  time  (1805)  fully  settled  in  his  mind 
whether  punishment  after  death  was  or  was  not  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Scriptures.  An  incident  occurring  in  181 7 
brought  him  to  a  decision  from  which  he  never  wavered 
in  after-years.  A  brother  minister  who  seemed  to  greatly 
delight  in  stirring  up  strife  became  a  volunteer  agent  in 
producing  a  controversy  which  resulted  in  much  bad  feel- 
ing among  brethren  and  in  a  schism  in  the  church.  Visit- 
ing the  Rev.  Edward  Turner,  then  a  resident  of  Charles- 
town,  Mass.,  who,  next  to  Mr.  Ballou,  stood  highest  in  the 
esteem  and  love  of  the  denomination,  he  represented  that 
Mr.  Ballou  desired  to  debate  with  him  the  doctrine  of  future 
punishment.  Then,  calling  on  Mr.  Ballou,  he  affirmed  that 
Mr.  Turner  was  desirous  of  such  a  discussion,  and  urged 
that  Mr.  Ballou  write  to  Mr.  Turner  on  the  subject.  There 
was  really  no  such  expressed  desire  on  either  side.  It 
was  wholly,  to  say  the  least,  in  the  imagination  of  this  busy 
go-between ;  but  Mr.  Ballou  accepted  the  statement  in 
good  faith,  and  sent  by  the  hand  of  his  informant  a  letter 
to  his  Brother  Turner.  He  told  him  that  in  his  judgment 
a  candid  discussion  of  a  subject  of  such  magnitude  might 
be  made  profitable,  and  added :  "  Though  at  first  thought 
it  might  seem  that  the  two  who  are  to  conduct  this  inves- 

444 


DJSCC'SS/ON   ON  FUTURE   PUXISIIM KXT.  445 

tigation  should  be  of  opposite  sentiments  on  the  subject  to 
be  argued,  on  more  mature  consideration  a  thought  sug- 
gests itself  that  the  inquiry  would  be  more  likely  to  be 
kept  free  from  improper  warmth  or  injudicious  zeal,  were 
the  parties  of  the  same  opinion,,  than  if  they  were  of  op- 
posite sentiments."  He  therefore  intimated  that  it  was 
matter  of  indifference  which  side  of  the  question  it  should 
fall  to  his  lot  to  advocate.  "You,"  he  said,  "have  the 
privilege  of  choosing  the  side  of  the  proposed  question  that 
you  should  prefer  to  vindicate,  and  come  as  directly  to  the 
merits  of  the  argument  as  you  think  proper,  and  leave  the 
other  to  be  vindicated  by  me." 

In  reply  Mr.  Turner  WTote :  "  I  received  by  Brother  W. 
your  proposal  for  a  friendly  investigation  of  the  subject  of 
a  future  punishment.  I  am  pleased  that  you  have  made 
such  a  proposal,  not  because  I  think  myself  so  adequate 
to  conduct  my  part  of  the  inquiry  as  many  others,  but  be- 
cause I  wish  to  inform  myself  more  of  the  real  state  of  the 
question  than  I  think  I  now  know,  or  can  know  without 
some  efforts  at  inquiry.  I  shall  avail  myself  of  your  offer 
in  selecting  the  side  which  I  mean  to  support.  I  will 
frankly  acknowledge  that  I  have  e\'er  been  inclined  more 
to  the  doctrine  of  a  future  punishment  than  to  the  oppo- 
site idea ;  hence,  as  I  shall  not  succeed  very  well  as  an  ar- 
gumentator  in  any  way,  and  wishing  to  do  as  well  as  pos- 
sible, I  shall  endeavor  to  prove  that  there  is  a  balance  of 
evidence  for  believing  in  a  future  state  of  punishment; 
upon  the  presumption  that  I  shall  answer  my  own  mind 
best  on  the  point  to  which  I  am  most  inclined." 

Mr.  Ballon,  after  expressing  his  satisfaction  that  the 
proposal,  "  growing  entirely  from  necessity,  and  not  from 
any  wi.sh  to  employ  my  time  in  unprofitable  disputation," 
had  been  accepted,  added :  "  I  am  equally  as  well  satisfied 
with   the  part  your  selection   has  allotted   me  as  I  should 


446  THE    UN/VERSA  LISTS.  [Chap.  vii. 

have  been  had  your  choice  been  different,  feehng  a  deter- 
mination to  pursue  the  inquiry  with  reference  to  nothing 
but  the  result  of  candid  reasoning,  dictated  and  sanctioned 
by  the  divine  testimony." 

These  and  other  letters  following  them  were  published 
in  the  second  volume  of  the  "  Gospel  Visitant,"  a  quarterly 
magazine,  which  ceased  with  that  volume.  They  may  be 
said  to  have  been  the  first  attempt  to  discuss  the  subject 
pro  and  con  among  us.  As  early  as  1 790  the  doctrine 
of  no  future  punishment  was  advocated,  and  occasioned  a 
letter  of  information  concerning  it  and  a  reply  thereto  at 
the  Philadelphia  Convention  that  year.  It  also  found  an 
advocate  in  Rev.  Abel  Sarjent,  whose  Unitarian  Univer- 
salism  we  have  mentioned  in  chapter  iv.,  and  it  was  in- 
volved in  the  theory  originating  in  Rev.  Caleb  Rich.  Mr. 
Ballon,  in  a  letter  to  Rev.  Joel  Foster  in  1797,  alludes  to 
a  position  which  he  had  taken  favorable  to  it  in  a  private 
conversation  with  Mr.  Foster,  but  now  confesses  his  belief 
"  in  a  future  state  of  discipline  in  which  the  impenitent  will 
be  miserable."  In  1805,  as  we  have  seen,  he  takes  the 
ground  that  "  if  any  suffer  in  the  future  state  it  will  be 
because  they  will  be  sinful  in  that  state,  and  not  because 
of  sins  committed  by  them  while  in  the  flesh."  In  181 1, 
in  a  published  article  on  "  Christ's  Preaching  to  the  Spirits 
in  Prison,"  he  avows  his  belief  in  punishment  beyond  this 
life  for  sins  committed  on  the  earth,  and  takes  the  ground 
that  the  passage  under  consideration  "  is  as  plain  and  direct 
a  contradiction  of  the  commonly  received  opinion  that  there 
is  no  mercy  to  be  communicated  to  those  who  die  in  un- 
reconciliation  to  God,  or  in  unbelief  of  the  gospel,  as  can 
possibly  be  stated."  In  1829,  in  answer  to  the  question, 
"  What  was  the  progress  of  your  mind  in  regard  to  the 
doctrine  of  punishment  in  the  future  state?"  Mr.  Ballou 


DISCUSSION   OiV  FUTURE  PUXISIIMENT.  447 

said:  "  I  never  made  the  question  a  subject  of  close  in- 
vestigation until  lately.  When  I  wrote  my  '  Notes  on  the 
Parables  '  and  my  '  Treatise  on  Atonement,'  I  had  traveled, 
in  my  mind,  away  from  penal  sufferings  so  entirely,  that 
I  was  satisfied  that  if  any  suffered  in  the  future  state,  it 
would  be  because  they  would  be  sinful  in  that  state.  But 
I  cannot  say  that  I  was  fully  satisfied  that  the  Bible  taught 
no  punishment  in  the  future  world  until  I  obtained  this 
satisfaction  by  attending  to  the  subject  with  Brother  Ed- 
ward Turner,  then  of  Charlestown.  .  .  .  When  I  sat  down 
to  reply  to  Brother  Turner,  who  urged  the  passage  in  Peter 
respecting  the  spirits  in  prison,  I  knew  not  by  what  means 
I  could  explain  the  text  without  allowing  it  to  favor  the 
doctrine  of  future  sufferings.  I  had,  at  that  time,  no 
knowledge  of  any  translation  of  the  text  but  the  one  in 
our  common  version.  But  on  reading  the  whole  subject 
in  connection,  the  light  broke  in  on  my  mind,  and  I  was 
satisfied  that  Peter  alluded  to  the  Gentiles  by  '  spirits  in 
prison,'  which  made  the  passage  agree  with  Isaiah  xlii."^ 
Rev.  Thomas  Whittemore  states  that  the  doctrine  of  no 
future  punishment  "  began  to  excite  a  little  attention  per- 
haps in  1814  or  1815  ";-  and  Rev.  Dr.  Hosea  Ballon,  2d, 
speaks  of  its  having  been  combated  by  Rev.  Jacob  W'ood 
in  i8i6,  at  which  time  "he  persuaded  one  of  the  Univer- 
salist  ministers  to  believe  that  it  was  necessary  that  the 
convention  should  take  a  decided  stand  in  favor  of  the 
doctrine  of  future  punishment."  ^  I  still  think  it  true, 
however,  that  no  formal  discussion  of  the  subject  had  taken 

1  Mr.  Ballou  had  no  knowledge  of  the  fact  that  others  had  reached  the  .same 
conclusion  before  himself.  It  was  wrought  out  by  him  with  no  other  aid  than 
the  Scriptures  afforded.  l>ut  it  was  an  interpretation  defended  by  drotius, 
Whitby,  and  others. 

2  "  Life  of  Rev.  Ilosca  Ballou,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  28. 

3  "  Universalist  Magazine,"  vol.  iv.,  p.  126. 


448  THE    UNI \-KKSA LISTS,  [Chap.  vii. 

place  until  this^in  1817.  And  I  may  as  confidently  add, 
that  no  general  interest  in  the  subject  had  been  manifested 
by  Universalists. 

While  the  Ballon  and  Turner  discussion  was  in  progress, 
Rev.  Jacob  Wood  put  forth  a  pamphlet  entitled  "  A  Brief 
Essay  on  the  Doctrine  of  Future  Retribution,"  in  which 
he  combated  with  ingenuity  and  commendable  fairness  the 
two  opposite  doctrines  of  endless  punishment  and  no  future 
punishment,  and  advocated  a  limited  punishment  for  sin 
beyond  the  grave.  After  quoting  sharp  and  bitter  state- 
ments from  Relly  and  Chauncy,  to  the  effect  that  the  doc- 
trine of  no  future  punishment  gives  "  encouragement  to 
sin,"  Mr.  Wood  added:  "  I  will  not  call  those  who  believe 
in  this  system  *  stupid  animals,  and  regret  the  time  spent 
in  writing  to  them,'  as  a  modern  Universalian  writer  has,^ 
but  I  really  think  the  opinion  very  erroneous.  The  many 
gross  absurdities  to  which  the  doctrine  of  immediate  uni- 
versal salvation  is  liable,  and  the  vicious  effects  which  it  is 
calculated  to  produce,  render  it  a  doctrine  justly  deserv- 
ing of  disapprobation  and  contempt." 

This  language  roused  bitter  feelings  in  the  minds  of  the 
believers  in  no  future  punishment,  and  was  character- 
ized by  Rev.  Dr.  Hosea  Ballon,  2d — a  believer  in  future 
punishment — as  "harshness."  And  he  pertinently  asked, 
"  Who  can  produce  so  severe  and  contemptuous  an  ex- 
pression as  this  in  all  that  has  been  written  against  future 
punishment?"  Unfortunately,  it  was  afterward  imitated 
by  several  writers  on  both  sides  of  the  controversy,  who 
strangely  mistook  invective  for  rational  criticism. 

The  discussion  between  Mr.  Ballon  and  Mr.  Turner 
ceased,  as  has  been  said  before,  when  the  publication  of 
the  "Gospel  Visitant  "  was  suspended.      In    1819,   when 

^  Rev.  Dan  Foster,  in  his  examination  of  Rev.  Nathan  Strong's  "  Doctrine 
of  Eternal  Misery  Reconcihil)le  with  the  Infinite  Uenevolence  of  God,"  etc. 


UNITARIAN  ATTACK.  449 

the  publication  of  the  "  Universalist  Magazine  " — the  first 
weekly  journal  of  the  denomination — began,  Mr.  Ballou 
took  the  editorial  charge.  It  was  expected  and  desired 
by  those  who  agreed  with  him  in  regard  to  no  future  pun- 
ishment, that  he  would  make  the  paper  a  very  pronounced 
exponent  of  these  views.  The  expectation  was  also  shared 
by  those  from  whom  he  dififered.  Both  parties  were  dis- 
appointed. He  was  not  a  man  to  stir  up  strife,  and  had 
no  desire  to  wound  the  feelings  of  any  of  the  household 
of  faith,  whatever  their  opinions  might  be  with  regard  to 
God's  time  and  method  of  reconciling  all  souls  to  himself. 
The  editor  of  the  "  Boston  Kaleidoscope,"  in  his  paper 
of  July  loth — one  week  after  the  first  issue  of  the  "  Uni- 
versalist Magazine  " — made  an  attack  on  Universalism  and 
propounded  four  questions  to  which  he  solicited  answers. 
One  of  the  questions  was  so  framed  as  to  involve  in  its 
consideration  the  doctrine  of  no  future  punishment.  The 
editor  was  a  Unitarian,  and  the  next  week  after  making 
this  attack  issued  an  address  "  To  the  Public,"  in  which 
he  announced  that  the  first  page  of  his  paper  would,  in 
future,  be  devoted  to  the  explaining  and  defending  of 
"  what  is  now  called  rational  and  liberal  Christianity,  as 
distinguished  from  Roman  Catholicism,  Calvinism,  Hop- 
kinsianism,  Universalism,  and  Deism."  Mr.  l^allou's  an- 
swers to  the  four  questions  were  unambiguous,  but  cour- 
teous, moderate,  and  in  no  sense  offensive.  His  treatment 
of  the  proposed  defense  of  "  rational  and  liberal  Christian- 
ity "  was  thorough  and  manly.  He  would  be  ready,  he 
said,  to  abandon  Universalism  when  it  should  be  shown 
to  be  either  unreasonable  or  illiberal ;  and  he  desired  the 
editor  of  the  "  Kaleidoscope  "  to  show,  if  he  could,  any- 
thing that  was  more  "  liberal  and  rational  than  Universal- 
ism." The  contnnersy  continued  about  three  months, 
and  the  mild  and  considerate  manner  in  which  Mr.  Ballou 


450  THE    INIVEKSALISTS.  [Chap.  vii. 

conducted  his  part  is  manifest  in  a  remark  made  by  the 
editor  of  the  "  Kaleidoscope,"  in  August,  that  he  had  not 
been  able  to  understand  whether  "  Mr.  Ballou  believes  in 
any  future  punishment,  or  none  at  all."  And  he  added: 
"  If  he  merely  believes  the  ^ final  restoration,'  so  called,  he 
stands  on  very  dififerent  ground  from  what  we  have  sup- 
posed. Till  this  point  is  ascertained,  we  dfeem  it  useless, 
if  not  worse,  to  continue  the  controversy.  If  not  incon- 
sistent with  his  views  and  feelings,  we  respectfully  request 
him  to  inform  us  and  the  public  on  this  point."  We  give 
nearly  in  full  Mr.  Ballou's  reply,  as  indicating  the  manner 
and  spirit  in  which  he  conducted  his  part  of  the  discussion 
with  an  outsider,  and  also  as  a  specimen  of  the  mildness 
and  candor  with  which  he  always  championed  his  views 
on  this  subject : 

"There  seem  to  appear  some  strong  intimations  in 
what  he  has  here  stated  that  he  has  no  objection  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  salvation  of  all  men  finally,  if  a  future  pun- 
ishment be  allowed  for  a  time.  He  says,  *  If  he  merely 
believes  the  final  restoration.'  This  form  of  expression 
would  indicate  that  he  has  no  particular  objections  to  make 
if  this  be  the  doctrine.  Well,  we  will  receive  him  on  this 
ground  with  all  cordiality.  If  he  will  allow  that  all  man- 
kind shall  finally  be  reconciled  to  God,  love  and  enjoy  him 
through  the  power  of  his  grace  revealed  in  him  who  gave 
himself  a  ransom  for  all,  to  be  testified  in  due  time,  we 
will  not  disagree  about  the  times  and  seasons,  which  God 
holds  in  his  own  power,  nor  will  we  disagree  on  the  quan- 
tity or  duration  of  that  chastisement  which  our  heavenly 
Father  may  administer  for  the  sinner's  profit. 

"  But  he  says  if  we  allow  any  future  punishment  we 
stand  on  '  very  dififerent  ground  '  from  what  lie  expected. 
We  will  endeavor  to  show  him  and  our  readers  that  the 
ground  or  prineiple  is  the  same  in  both  cases — that  is,  the 


MA'.   B  ALLOC  S   A  A 'S 1 1  LiK.  4  5  l 

Universalist  who  believes  that  this  mortal  state,  in  flesh 
and  blood,  is  the  only  state  of  sin  and  misery,  stands  on 
the  same  principle  as  does  his  brother  who  believes  that 
there  may  be  a  state  of  future  discipline  which  will  event- 
uate in  bringing  all  sinners  to  a  state  of  holiness  and  hap- 
piness. 

"  Neither  difference  respecting  the  time  when  the  crea- 
ture is  to  be  made  happy,  nor  the  particular  means  by 
which  tliis  event  is  brought  about,  makes  the  least  differ- 
ence in  principle.  Two  brothers,  sons  of  the  same  father, 
may  perfectly  agree  in  their  sentiments  respecting  their 
parent.  They  both  believe  that  he  will  not  fail  to  give 
them  all  the  instruction  they  need,  that  his  discipline  over 
them  is  all  designed  for  their  benefit,  and  yet  they  may 
entertain  different  views  respecting  time  and  means.  One 
may  think  that  they  are  to  be  kept  at  school  until  they  are 
eighteen,  the  other  may  be  of  the  mind  that  they  are  to  be 
continued  under  tutors  and  governors  a  year  longer;  yet 
both  believe  that  their  father  knows  best  and  will  order 
their  concerns  according  to  his  own  wisdom  and  goodness. 
He  who  believes  that  all  sufferings  end  with  this  mortal 
state,  and  he  who  belie\'es  that  they  end  at  the  expiration 
of  any  other  period,  differ  only  as  it  respects  time,  not  as 
it  respects  principle,  for  both  believe  that  all  discipline  is 
for  the  good  of  the  punished,  and  therefore  the  sentiment 
is  the  same. 

"  But  the  editor  of  the  '  Kaleidoscope  '  thinks  it  may 
be  worse  than  useless  '  to  continue  the  controversy  '  until 
we  decide  the  question  whether  we  believe  in  future  pun- 
ishment or  not.  But  why  should  this  be  the  case?  Our 
controversy  is  not  concerning  the  question  which  he  here 
states;  we  may  say,  with  propriety,  that  this  question  has 
no  immediate  concern  with  the  subject  of  our  controversy. 
He  had  promised  to  explain  and  defend  '  rational  and  lib- 


452  THE    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  vii. 

eral  Christianity,'  as  distinguished  from  Universalism ;  and 
we  have  endeavored  to  keep  him  to  his  promise,  but  we 
do  not  succeed ;  and  we  think  his  sagacity  has  made  the 
discovery  that  we  were  right  in  our  opinion  that  he  never 
would  fulfill  his  promise. 

"  On  a  subject  so  vast,  of  such  infinite  importance  as 
the  one  embraced  in  his  promise,  to  discover  any  desire 
to  avoid  coming  directly  to  the  main  question,  in  the  most 
direct  manner  for  decision,  is  a  defect  of  such  a  character 
as  gives  us  very  disagreeable  sensations..  What  has  he 
answered  to  the  numerous  arguments  which  we  have 
brought  to  disprove  his  statements  ?  Nothing.  What  has 
he  even  pretended  to  say  against  universal  salvation  that 
we  have  not  fully  refuted?  Nothing.  What  next?  A 
new  question  is  started:  Do  we  believe  in  future  punish- 
ment or  not  ?  Why  does  not  our  friend  act  on  the  noble 
principle  which  would  lead  him  to  say,  '  I  cannot  prove, 
either  by  Bible  or  reason,  that  all  men  may  not  finally  be 
saved,  but  I  think  that  future  limited  punishment  may  be 
supported.'  Then  if  we  disagreed  at  all,  it  would  not  be 
on  principle,  it  would  only  be  concerning  times,  ivays,  and 
means. 

"...  But,  after  all,  will  it  do  to  answer  the  question? 
There  would  be  no  danger  if  we  could  say  we  believe  in 
a  state  of. future  punishment — that  is,  if  no  one  would  call 
on  us  to  prove  it  from  the  Scriptures.  But  there  lies  the 
difficulty.  We  are  sensible  that  we  cannot  prove  that  sin 
and  misery  will  exist  in  a  future  state  of  being." 

At  a  later  date,  in  the  first  volume  of  the  "  Magazine," 
Mr.  Ballou,  in  response  to  a  request  for  an  exposition  of 
the  passage  relating  to  Christ's  preaching  to  the  spirits  in 
prison,  republished  the  letter  which  originally  appeared  in 
the  "  Gospel  Visitant  "  in  connection  with  his  discussion 
with  Mr.  Turner.      In   the  second  volume,  a  synopsis  of 


CHANGE   OF  ED  I  TORS.  453 

one  of  his  sermons  was  published,  in  which  were  less 
than  twenty  lines  on  the  subject  of  no  future  punishment.- 
These,  I  believe,  were  the  only  instances  in  the  first  two 
volumes  of  his  paper  in  which  he  advocated  his  views  of 
this  subject.  He  had  now  been  pastor  of  a  rapidly  grow- 
ing church  in  Boston  since  181 7,  and  finding  his  health 
and  strength  unequal  to  the  extra  work  which  the  editing 
of  the  "  Magazine  "  imposed,  he  withdrew  from  the  edi- 
torial charge.  Mr.  Henry  Bowen  still  remained  the  pub- 
lisher, "  and  the  paper  was  then  very  unwisely  put  into 
the  hands  of  an  individual  by  the  name  of  Foster,  who 
had  been  improperly  recommended  to  Mr.  Bowen  ;  for  he 
was  utterly  ignorant  of  Universalism  and  every  other  kind 
of  theology,  and  unfit  in  every  respect  for  such  a  post."  ^ 
Under  this  incompetent  management  the  columns  of  the 
paper  were  soon  largely  taken  up  with  a  crudely  conducted 
and  provoking  discussion  of  the  future-punishment  ques- 
tion. Before  the  volume  closed  the  publisher  felt  com- 
pelled to  make  a  change  in  its  editorial  supervision,  and 
announced  that  "  the  Rev.  Hosea  Ballou,  of  Boston,  the 
Rev.  Hosea  Ballou,  2d,  of  Roxbury,  and  the  Rev.  Thomas 
Whittemore,  of  Cambridgeport,  would  edit  the  paper  in 
future."  Mr.  Whittemore  was  in  full  aQCord  in  sentiment 
with  the  senior  editor  on  the  controverted  subject,  while 
Rev.  H.  Ballou,  2d,  a  grand-nephew  of  the  senipr  I^allou, 
for  whom  he  had  been  named,  was,  as  we  have  said  before, 
a  believer  in  future  punishment.  The  unhappy  conse- 
quences of  the  injudicious  management  of  the  paper  in 
the  past  ten  months  could  not  now  be  averted  by  change 
of  editors.  It  is  a  fact  beyond  all  dispute  that  some  of 
the  participants  in  the  discussion  on  the  future-punishment 
side  were  determined  on  having  their  views  indorsed  as 
the  views  of  the  denomination  at  large,  and  all  opposing 

1  "  Early  Days  of  Thomas  Whittemore,"  p.  31 1. 


454  ^-^^-^    UNIVEKSALISTS.  [Chap.  vii. 

views  put  under  ban.  While  Mr.  Foster  was  editor  they 
had  held  a  meeting  to  deliberate  on  the  matter,  but  had 
deferred  action  until  Mr.  Ballou  was  again  in  charge.  Sub- 
sequently Rev.  Messrs.  Jacob  Wood,  Edward  Turner,  Paul 
Dean,  Barzillai  Streeter,  Charles  Hudson,  and  Levi  Briggs 
met  and  joined  in  issuing  an  "  Appeal  and  Declaration," 
"  signed,  by  the  request  and  in  behalf  of  others,"  by  Jacob 
Wood ;  the  names  of  the  others  being  for  a  while,  until 
discovered  by  Mr.  Ballou,  withheld  from  the  public.  Rev. 
Messrs.  Briggs,  Hudson,  and  Streeter  afterward  disclaimed 
any  agency  in  writing  or  publishing  the  "  Appeal,"  which 
proved  to  be  an  announcement  of  a  personal  grievance  of 
Mr.  Wood's,  while  the  "  Declaration  "  was  a  setting  forth 
of  the  doctrinal  views  of  Mr.  Wood  and  the  five  others 
who  met  with  him. 

Mr.  Wood  was  not  a  man  of  sufficient  ability  and  influ- 
ence to  have  occasioned  particular  notice  in  this  contro- 
versy. He  became  the  mouthpiece  and  the  not  unwill- 
ing tool  of  Mr.  Dean,  the  colleague  and  afterward  the  suc- 
cessor of  Rev.  Mr.  Murray,  in  Boston.  Mr.  Dean  was  at 
the  bottom,  and  wholly  for  personal  reasons,  of  this  attempt 
at  division  and  ostracism.  Long  jealous  of  Mr.  Ballou's  suc- 
cess, he  had  declared  to  the  latter — who  had  been  invited 
by  some  of  Mr.  Murray's  dissatisfied  hearers  to  settle  in 
Boston  some  years  before  Mr.  Dean  came  there,  and  had 
replied  that  he  would  not  during  the  lifetime  of  Mr.  Murray 
do  anything  that  could  possibly  disturb  his  relations  with 
any  of  the  people — that  should  he  ever  accept  an  in\'ita- 
tion  to  come  to  Boston  he  "  should  consider  it  a  breach  of 
fellowship  and  treat  it  as  such."  Mr.  Ballou  delayed  the 
starting  of  a  new  church  in  Boston  until  Mr.  Murray  had 
been  two  years  dead.  From  that  time  on  Mr.  Dean  was 
his  enemy.  He  withdrew  from  the  fellowship  of  the  con- 
vention in  1823,  and  started  a  new  movement  in  Boston. 


THE  KKSI'ORATIONISTS.  455 

Further  details  concerning  this  future-punishment  con- 
troversy within  the  denomination  are  omitted  here.  Tliey 
are  given  in  full  elsewhere,  as  indorsed  by  the  survivors 
in  1885,  as  fair  and  accurate  in  statement.'  In  1831  the  L- 
dissatisfied  seceded  and  set  up  a  new  denomination,  organ-  ' 
izing  as  the  "  Massachusetts  Association  of  Universal  Res- 
torationists."  Eight  clergymen  were  in  the  movement. 
Their  last  meeting  was  held  in  1841,  when  the  organization 
was  dissolved.  During  the  ten  years  of  its  existence  the 
ministers  either  in  fellowship  or  otherwise  openly  avowing 
sympathy  with  the  movement  numbered  thirty-one  against 
five  hundred  who  stood  by  the  Universalist  name  and  con- 
vention. At  its  dissolution  some  returned  to  the  Univer- 
salist fellowship,  some  found  a  congenial  home  with  the 
Unitarians,  and  a  few  threw  all  their  time  and  energy  into 
the  Reforms,  particularly  the  Antislavery  Reform. 

The  secession  was  a  mistake  and  a  disappointment  and 
failure.  It  was  participated  in  by  a  far  less  number  of 
believers  in  future  punishment  than  remained  in  the  Uni- 
versalist denomination,  who  failed  to  see  any  cause  for  a 
division.  They  were  convinced  that  any  question  of  this 
nature  was  of  secondary  consideration,  and  that  the  cause 
of  truth  could  not  be  helped  by  divided  energies  and 
internal  dissensions.  The  opinion  of  the  senior  Ballon  all 
through  the  controversy,  although  not  approved, -was,  they 
thought,  one  that  did  not  deserve  the  censure  and  bitter 
opposition  with  which  the  seceders  visited  it.  However 
younger  men  who  sympathized  with  his  views  may  have 
matched  the  invective  and  bitterness  of  those  who  opposed 
him,  they  recognized  his  great  fairness  and  honesty  of 
opinion,  and  the  charitable  manner  in  which  he  treated  the 
views  of  all.  Freedom  of  difference  of  opinion  oh  this  sub- 
ject he  not  merely  tolerated — he  pleaded  for  and  demanded 

1  See  my  "  History  of  Univcrsalisni  in  America,"  vol.  ii.,  pp.  260  ff. 


456  THE    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  vii. 

it.  He  was  misrepresented  and  his  theory  was  called  by- 
ugly  names,  and  such  instances  of  it  as  came  to  his  knowl- 
edge he  replied  to  courteously,  fairly,  decidedly,  but  with- 
out malice.  The  seceders  indulged  in  gross  misrepresenta- 
tion of  his  views,  as  was  to  have  been  expected ;  but  out- 
side the  ranks  of  those  who  professed  belief  in  the  final 
salvation  of  all  souls,  especially  among  those  who  prided 
themselves  on  being  preeminently  "  rational  and  liberal," 
his  views  were  also  caricatured.  Dr.  Channing,  even,  was 
among  those  who  gave  this  interpretation  of  his  opinion : 
"  Moral  evil  is  to  be  buried  in  the  grave."  Mr.  Ballou 
was  indignant,  and  characterized  Dr.  Channing's  assertion 
as  having  "  the  appearance  of  a  canting  throw  at  what  he 
is  not  disposed  to  treat  with  his  usual  candor."  Again, 
the  same  eminent  divine  said  that  Mr.  Ballou  and  his  school 
ascribe  the  "  power  to  death  of  changing  and  purifying 
the  mind."  This  was  such  an  egregious  mistake,  and 
evinced  such  ignorance  of  Mr.  Ballou's  belief,  that  it  drew 
from  him  these  words  of  unmistakable  import :  "  He  cer- 
tainly never  heard  any  of  us  state  such  views,  nor  has 
he  ever  read  any  such  statement  in  any  of  our  writings." 
"  Never,"  he  said,  "  did  we  ascribe  the  power  of  cleansing 
from  sin  to  anything  but  that  which  the  Scriptures  mean 
by  '  the  blood  of  the  Lamb.'  " 

Whatever  may  be  thought,  either  by  Universalists  or 
by  others,  in  regard  to  the  tenableness  of  the  no-future- 
punishment  views  of  Mr.  Ballou,  the  fact  of  his  holding 
them  ought  to  occasion  no  surprise.  The  wonder  is,  rather, 
that  under  the  circumstances  anything  less  extreme  should 
have  been  set  against  the  doctrine  of  eternal  suflfering  for 
sin. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  present  century,  and  until  within 
a  comparatively  short  time,  the  Protestant  theology  con- 
tained as  a  fundamental  tenet  the  thought  that  this  world 


EX  TKEME    I  -IE  WS. 


457 


had  no  awards  either  for  goodness  or  for  sin.  Here  the 
saints  are  sufferers  and  the  wicked  are  happy.  Rewards 
for  enduring  the  hardships  incidental  to  Christian  Hving 
and  penalties  for  indulging  in  the  delights  of  sin  belong 
exclusively  to  eternity,  and  the  duration  of  each  will  be 
endless.  There  is  nothing  here  but  trouble  and  sorrow 
for  the  righteous,  notliing  but  success  and  happiness  for 
the  wicked.  All  will  be  reversed  hereafter,  and  the  trouble 
and  sorrow  will  never  end.  Murray,  Winchester,  Ballou, 
all  the  early  Universalists,  were  born  into  this  belief.  Mur- 
ray escaped  out  of  it  by  his  mystical  union  of  the  race 
with  Christ,  by  which  all  suffering  was  his  inheritance  in 
our  stead.  Winchester  projected  the  severest  material 
sufferings  for  sinners  far  into  the  immortal  state,  but  hap- 
pily saw  an  end  of  them  at  last.  Ballou,  whose  only  text- 
book was  also  the  Bible,  and  who  was  emphatically  a  man 
of  ojic  book,  read  therein  that  "  the  judgments  of  God  are 
in  the  earth,"  that  "  the  wages  [i.e.,  the  daily  pay]  of  sin 
is  death,"  that  he  "  who  sows  to  the  flesh  shall  of  the  flesh 
reap  corruption,"  that  "  there  is  no  peace,  saith  my  Goci, 
to  the  wicked,  they  are  like  the  troubled  sea  which  casts 
up  mire  and  dirt";  and  from  these  and  kindred  declara- 
tions he  was  sure  that  there  is  retribution  for  sin  here. 
He  also  saw  that  all  passages  of  Holy  Writ  which  seem  to 
teach  that  punishment  is  eternal  express  the  thought  in 
words  necessarily  limited  as  denoting  duration  when  used 
elsewhere,  and  therefore,  in  themselves,  afford  no  proof 
of  endlessness.  He  saw,  too,  that  sometimes  these  words, 
from  their  connection,  could  not  be  used  as  denoting  in 
any  degree  a  measure  of  time,  but  must  stand  for  its  qual- 
ity only;  and  setting  over  against  these  the  unambiguous 
declarations  in  regard  to  the  certainty  of  present  retribu- 
tion, he  contended  that  this  latter  was  the  only  doctrine 
of  the  Bible  in  regard  to  punishment.      Shall  we  call  it  an 


458  THE    UNIVEKSALISTS.  [CiiAi'.  vii. 

extreme  view  ?  Was  it  really  more  extreme  or  more  un- 
justifiably so  than  that  which  it  combated  ?  And  did  it 
not  well  and  naturally  illustrate  the  saying  that  "  one  ex- 
treme is  sure  to  follow  another  "  ? 

The  attitude  of  Universalists  to-day  with  regard  to  this 
/question  of  the  time  and  place  and  duration  of  punishment 
of  sin  may  well  be  given  in  the  language  of  another.  In 
1878  the  Universalist  ministers  of  Boston,  after  a  friendly 
discussion  continued  many  weeks  at  their  Monday  meet- 
ings, committed  to  Rev.  Messrs.  A.  A.  Miner,  T.  J.  Sawyer, 
C.  R.  Moor,  O.  F.  Safford,  and  A-  St.  John  Chambre  the 
preparation  of  a  statement  which  should  embrace  essential 
principles  held  in  common  by  the  Universalist  preachers 
generally.  Their  report,  modified  as  the  discussion  pro- 
gressed, finally  took  shape  in  the  form  in  which  it  is  here 
given.  The  vote  on  a  motion  for  its  adoption  stood  thirty- 
three  in  favor  to  two  against.  The  negative  votes  did  not 
denote  objections  to  the  points  affirmed,  but  were  based 
on  other  considerations.  This  approach  to  unanimity  may 
be  confidently  said  to  indicate  the  attitude  of  our  church: 

"  We,  the  Universalist  ministers  of  Boston  and  vicinity, 
observing  the  widespread  agitation  in  the  religious  world 
with  respect  to  the  final  destiny  of  our  race,  and  more 
especially  of  those  who  die  in  impenitence  and  sin,  and 
desirous  that  our  views  on  this  important  subject  should 
not  be  misunderstood,  after  much  earnest  thought  and 
prayerful  consideration  present  the  following,  not  by  any 
means  as  a  full  statement  of  our  faith,  but  as  indicating  its 
general  character: 

"  I.  We  reverently  and  devoutly  accept  the  Holy  Script- 
ures as  containing  a  revelation  of  the  character  of  God  and 
of  the  eternal  principles  of  his  moral  government. 

"  2.  As  holiness  and  happiness  are  inseparably  con- 
nected, so  we  believe  that  all  sin  is  accompanied  and  fol- 


PRESENT  ATTITUDE.  459 

lowed  by  misery,  it  being  a  fixed  principle  in  the  divine 
government  that  God  renders  to  every  man  according  to 
his  works,  so  that  '  though  hand  join  in  hand,  the  wicked 
shall  not  be  unpunished.' 

"  3.  Guided  by  the  express  teachings  of  revelation,  we 
recognize  God  not  only  as  our  King  and  Judge,  but  also 
as  our  gracious  Father,  who  doth  not  afflict  willingly  nor 
grieve  the  children  of  men  ;  but  though  he  cause  grief,  yet 
will  he  have  compassion  according  to  the  multitude  of  his 
mercies. 

"  4.  We  belie\'e  that  divine  justice,  '  born  of  love  and 
limited  by  love,'  ^  primarily  requires  '  love  to  God  with  all 
the  soul,'  and  to  one's  neighbor  as  one's  self.  Till  these 
requisitions  are  obeyed,  justice  administers  such  discipline, 
including  both  chastisement  and  instruction,  and  for  as 
long  a  period,  as  may  be  necessary  to  secure  that  obedience 
which  it  ever  demands.  Hence  it  never  accepts  hatred 
for  love,  nor  suffering  for  loyalty,  but  uniformly  and  for- 
ever preserves  its  aim. 

"  5.  We  believe  that  the  sal\-ation  Christ  came  to  effect 
is  salvation  from  sin  rather  than  from  the  punishment  of 
sin,  and  that  he  must  continue  his  work  till  he  has  put  all 
enemies  under  his  feet,  that  is,  brought  them  in  complete 
subjection  lo  his  law. 

"  6.  We  believe  that  repentance  and  salvation  are  not 
limited  to  this  life.  Whenever  and  wherever  the  sinner 
truly  turns  to  God,  salvation  will  be  found.  God  is  '  the 
same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever,'  and  the  obedience 
of  his  children  is  ever  welcome  to  him. 

"  7.  To  limit  the  saving  power  of  Christ  to  this  present 
life  seems  to  us  like  limiting  the  Holy  One  of  Israel ;  and 
when  we  consider  how  many  millions  lived  and  died  before 
Christ  came,  and   how  many   since,  who  not  only   never 

1    Rev.  Mark  Hopkins,  D.D. 


46i)  THE    UNIVEKSALISTS.  [Chap.  vii. 

heard  his  name,  but  were  ignorant  of  the  one  Hving  God, 
we  shudder  at  the  thought  that  his  infinite  love  should 
have  made  no  provision  for  their  welfare,  and  left  them  to 
annihilation,  or,  what  is  worse,  endless  misery.  And  it  is 
but  little  better  with  myriads  born  in  Christian  lands,  whose 
opportunities  have  been  so  meager  that  their  endless  dam- 
nation would  be  an  act  of  such  manifest  injustice  as  to 
be  in  the  highest  degree  inconsistent  with  the  benevolent 
character  of  God. 

"  8.  In  respect  to  death  we  believe  that,  however  im- 
portant it  may  be  in  removing  manifold  temptations  and 
opening  the  way  to  a  better  life,  and  however,  like  other 
great  events,  it  may  profoundly  influence  man,  it  has  no 
saving  power.  Salvation,  secured  in  the  willing  mind  by 
the  agencies  of  divine  truth,  light,  and  love,  essentially  rep- 
resented in  Christ — whether  effected  here  or  in  the  future 
life — is  salvation  by  Christ,  and  gives  no  warrant  to  the 
imputation  to  us  of  the  '  death-and-glory  '  theory,  alike 
repudiated  by  all. 

"  9.  Whatever  diflferences  in  regard  to  the  future  may 
exist  among  us,  none  of  us  believe  that  the  horizon  of 
eternity  will  be  relatively  either  largely  or  for  a  long  time 
overcast  by  the  clouds  of  sin  and  punishment,  and  in  com- 
ing into  the  enjoyment  of  salvation,  whensoever  that  may 
be,  all  the  elements  of  penitence,  forgiveness,  and  regener- 
ation are  involved.  Justice  and  mercy  will  then  be  seen 
to  be  entirely  at  one,  and  God  be  all  in  all." 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

POLITY — MISSIONS— HISTORICAL    SOCIETY. 

Uniformity  in  organization  and  the  establishing  of  a 
polity  acceptable  to  all  has  been  of  slow  growth.      In  the 
beginning  each  congregation  was  radically  independent  in 
managing  its  affairs,  and  the  earliest  forms  of  convention 
and  association  organizations  did  not  attempt  to  abridge 
this  independence.      Each  society  claimed,  and  at  its  pleas- 
ure exercised,  all  the  powers  which  were  claimed  by  any 
larger  body.      In  consequence  there  was  frequent  embar- 
rassment and  trouble,  especially  in  matters  of  fellowship 
and  discipline.     As  early  as   1821   an  effort  was  made  in 
the  General  Convention  to  remedy  this  defect,  but  it  en- 
countered  too   much   opposition   to  succeed.     Six   years 
later  a  proposal  to  alter  the  plan  of  representation  in  that 
body,  and  to  require  all  associations  and  State   Conven- 
tions' to   adopt   the   Articles   of   Belief   professed  by  the 
General  Convention  and  to  be  governed  by  the  rules  of 
the  General  and  State  Conventions,  or  such  as  they  may 
adopt  in  conformity  thereto,  was  received  with  unanimous 
favor,  and  a  committee  was  appointed  to  draw  up  "  the 
outlines  of  a  revised  plan  for  the  better  government  of  the 
Convention,   the   associations   and  societies  in  its  fellow- 
ship."    This  committee  proposed  a  plan  which  unfortu- 
nately attempted  to  do  away  with  lay  representation^  and 
on  its  reference  to  the  societies  it  was  disapproved.      Some 
difficulty,  growing  out  of  the  failure  to  recognize  authority 
in   the  General  Convention,  caused   the  appointment  of  a 

461 


462  THE    UNJVEKSALISrS.  [Chap.  viii. 

committee  to  visit  the  Maine  and  New  York  State  Con- 
ventions for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  their  views  of  the 
relations  existing  between  them  and  the  General  Conven- 
tion. The  former  body  replied  that  it  desired  to  preserve 
harmony  with  the  General  Convention  and  other  conven- 
tions and  associations,  but  that  it  regarded  itself  as  "  a 
distinct  and  independent  religious  body,  having  a  right  to 
transact  its  own  business  without  the  intervention  of  any 
other  religious  body  w^hatever.  .  .  .  Our  convenience  and 
interest  can  be  better  served  in  entire  independency." 
The  New  York  Convention  passed  a  resolve  acknowledg- 
ing "  with  pleasure  its  regard  for  the  General  Convention 
as  a  sister  ecclesiastical  body — that  we  have  ever  ex- 
pressed a  Christian  fellowship  for  that  body,  and  that  we 
regard  each  as  independent  of  each  other  so  far  as  is  con- 
sistent with  strict  and  mutual  fellowship." 

In  1832  the  conventions  in  Maine,  New  York,  and 
Pennsylvania  consented  to  a  reorganization,  provided  the 
powers  of  the  new  General  Convention  were  advisory  only. 
A  revised  constitution  was  therefore  adopted  in  1833,  and 
the  title  of  the  convention  Avas  changed  to  "  The  General 
Convention  of  Universalists  in  the  United  States";  and  it 
was  to  be  composed  of  four  clerical  and  six  lay  delegates 
from  each  State  Convention.  "  It  disclaims  all  authority 
over,  or  right  of  interference  with,  the  regulations  of  any 
State  Convention  or  minor  association,  and  will  only  ex- 
ercise the  privilege  of  advising  the  adoption  of  such  meas- 
ures and  regulations  as  in  its  opinion  shall  be  best  adapted 
to  the  promotion  of  the  general  good  of  the  cause."  All 
that  was  gained  by  this  revision  was  the  securing  of  a  def- 
inite instead  of  an  indefinite  composition  of  the  conven- 
tion. The  first  attempt  of  the  General  Convention  to 
avail  itself  of  this  "privilege  of  advising"  was  in    1838, 


LACK   OF    I'M  FORM  rrV.  463 

when  it  asked  "  tlie  several  State  Conventions  to  respect 
the  official  acts  of  discipline  of  each  sister  State  Conven- 
tion." This  reasonable  advice  and  request  was  disre- 
garded, and  the  denomination  at  large  suffered  from  its 
inability  to  rid  itself  of  unworthy  ministers,  who,  if  disci- 
plined and  disfellowshiped  in  one  State,  sought,  and  in 
some  cases  obtained,  good  standing  in  another  State. 

The  experience  of  difficulties  of  this  nature  in  Ohio 
caused  an  association  in  that  State  to  memorialize  the 
General  Convention  in  1841,  on  the  adoption  by  that 
body  of  a  constitution  and  plan  of  church  compact  and 
rules  of  discipline  for  societies,  associations,  and  conven- 
tions. The  committee  to  whom  the  memorial  was  referred, 
with  instructions  to  obtain  from  each  State  Convention  its 
approval  or  otherwise  of  such  action,  reported  the  follow- 
ing year  that  but  two  States — New  York  and  Ohio — had 
responded,  each  approving.  The  committee  was  contin- 
ued and  instructed  to  draw  up  a  plan  of  organization  and 
discipline,  and  report  the  next  year.  No  progress  was 
made  until  1844,  when  a  carefully  drawn  plan  of  the 
powers  and  jurisdiction  of  the  General  Convention  and 
of  the  State  Conventions  and  associations  was  presented. 
In  bringing'  it  forward,  the  Rev.  T.  J.  Sawyer,  the  com- 
mittee, alluded  to  the  fact  that  our  different  organizations, 
seemingly  so  regularly  graded  from  the  smallest  to  the 
largest  and  most  important,  were  mere  names,  having  in 
reality  no  gradation  in  rank  and  influence.  "  For,"  he 
said,  "  the  moment  we  inquire  into  the  more  important 
relations  of  these  bodies,  into  their  respecti\e  powers  and 
limitations,  we  shall  be  surprised  at  the  chaotic  state  in 
which  they  are  found.  We  shall  observe  that  there  is 
little  or  no  uniformity  of  action  ;  that  there  is  no  bond  of 
union  between  especially  the  State  Conventions;  no  court 


464  ^'■^^^'    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  viii. 

of  appeal  for  them,  and  indeed,  no  power  to  regulate  their 
intercourse  or  make  the  acts  of  one  body  respected  by 
another ;  and  finally,  no  authority  to  determine  many 
points  of  practice  of  universal  concernment  and  of  vital 
interest  to  the  denomination.  To  account  for  this  anom- 
alous state  it  is  only  necessary  to  remind  you  that  this 
body,  professedly  the  highest  and  the  most  comprehen- 
sive, has  actually  the  least  power  of  any,  or,  more  prop- 
erly, no  power  at  all.  .  .  .  As  it  is  now  constituted,  it 
seems  to  me  a  sad  approximation  to  a  mere  nullity.  .  .  . 
In  the  important  matter  of  granting  Letters  of  Fellowship, 
including  license  to  preach,  it  is  a  well-known  and,  I  may 
add,  a  lamentable  fact,  that  we  have  no  general  and  es- 
tablished rules,  and  have  no  uniformity  of  action.  As  a 
natural  consequence  resulting  from  such  a  state  of  things, 
the  fellowship  of  the  denomination  thus  granted  is  but  an 
indifferent  recommendation,  and  is  in  fact  reduced  to  its 
minimum  value.  .  .  .  We  owe  it  to  ourselves,  and  to  the 
great  cause  in  which  we  are  engaged,  to  give  to  our  Fel- 
lowship and  Ordination  a  higher  significance  than  they 
now  possess.  And  whatever  is  done  should  be  done,  not 
by  State  Conventions,  but  by  this  body.  This  is  a  mat- 
ter closely  identified  with  our  interests  and  prosperity;  it 
concerns  the  whole  denomination.  It  does  not,  therefore, 
belong  to  the  legislation  of  particular  neighborhoods,  nor 
has  it  a  thousand  varying  interests  in  various  localities. 
They  who  give  fellowship  in  Maine,  or  Alabama,  or  Iowa 
Territory,  give  what  belongs  to  all  of  us,  as  well  as  to 
themselves.  They  speak,  not  in  their  names  alone,  but 
in  ours  also,  and  sign  a  draft  which  we  are  expected  to 
honor  in  every  part  of  the  United  States." 

What  the  committee  proposed  was  laid  over  for  con- 
sideration at  the  next  session ;  and  that  it  might  be  thor- 
oughly understood  by  that  body,  a  committee  of  one  from 


INADEQUATE  MEASURES.  465 

each  State  was  appointed  to  bring  it  before  the  associa- 
tions and  State  Conventions  at  their  sessions  in  the  in- 
terim. The  session  in  1 845  was  largely  attended,  and  the 
following,  slightly  modified  from  the  original  report  of  a 
year  before,  was  made  a  part  of  the  constitution : 

"  The  United  States  Convention  has  jurisdiction  over 
the  several  State  Conventions  of  which  it  is  composed, 
and  may,  from  time  to  time,  enact  such  laws  for  regulat- 
ing the  relations  and  intercourse  of  said  conventions  as 
the  general  good  of  the  denomination  may  require.  It 
may  also  pass  such  laws  as  are  necessary  to  secure  a  uni- 
form and  wholesome  discipline  throughout  the  denomina- 
tion. It  has  original  and  exclusive  jurisdiction  over  the 
subject  of  fellowship  and  ordination,  and  may  prescribe 
the  terms  on  which  fellowship  shall  be  granted  and  ordi- 
nation conferred  by  ail  subordinate  bodies." 

At  first  view  it  would  seem  that  an  important  end  had 
been  gained  by  the  adoption  of  this  article ;  but  the  con- 
cession as  to  what  the  convention  might  do  became  an 
empty  form  of  permission,  which  was  practically  inter- 
preted as  meaning  nothing  when  attempts  were  made  to 
do  anything  where  uniformity  of  law  and  practice  was 
most  needed.  At  the  very  next  session  (1846)  the  rules 
were  suspended  at  an  early  hour,  to  permit  the  introduc- 
tion of  a  resolution  to  repeal  the  amendment  and  restore 
the  original  article ;  but  although  this  was  laid  on  the  table 
and  a  committee  was  appointed  to  draft  "  Rules  and  Reg- 
ulations governing  the  subjects  of  Fellowship  and  Ordi- 
nation," they  never  reported  ;  and  when,  in  1847,  a  protest 
against  this  resolution,  as  interpreted  by  the  Illinois  Con- 
vention, was  introduced  by  a  delegate  from  that  body,  the 
General  Convention  "  Voted,  That  it  had  never  prescribed 
any  rules  in  regard  to  the  subject  of  the  protest."  But  a 
rule  had  become  a  necessity,  and  at  that  session  a  com- 


466  THE    UXII'ERSALISTS.  [Chai>.  viii. 

mittee  was  appointed  to  report  at  the  next  session  "  some 
plan  of  securing  uniformity  of  ministerial  fellowship." 
This  committee  reported  that  "  e\-ery  State  Convention 
should  be  required  to  make  the  recognition  and  acknowl- 
edgment of  the  Bible,  as  containing  a  special  revelation 
from  God,  sufficient,  for  faith  and  practice;  and  also  a 
declaration  on  the  part  of  every  candidate  to  devote  him- 
self to  the  work  of  the  ministry,  an  indispensable  condition 
of  granting  Letters  of  Fellowship,  or  license  to  preach." 
This  was  adopted,  with  the  following  annexed  penalty : 
"  Any  State  Convention  or  association  refusing  to  ac- 
knowledge the  principle  embodied  in  the  above  Article, 
or  to  conform  to  the  unity  of  action  and  fellowship  therein 
required,  shall  not  be  entitled  to  the  fellowship  or  privi- 
leges of  this  convention." 

This  was  at  a  time  when  German  rationalism  was  being 
pressed  into  notice  and  the  claim  was  made  for  it  that  all 
so-called  "  Liberal  Christians  "  should  give  it  acceptance. 
It  was  fascinating  to  a  few  young  preachers,  but  was 
emphatically  and  decisively  condemned,  in  so  far  as  it  at- 
tempted to  eliminate  the  supernatural  element  from  the 
Christian  records,  by  the  denomination  at  large.  When- 
ever occasion  has  required,  the  associations  and  conven- 
tions have  not  hesitated  to  declare  in  unambiguous  lan- 
guage that  the  Universalist  Church  bows  to  the  Lordship 
of  Jesus  Christ  and  accepts  his  religion  as  a  revelation 
from  God.  Universalists,  like  all  others,  must,  in  order 
to  holding  a  defensible  belief,  use  their  reason  and  accept 
whatever  is  proven  true ;  but  this  is  very  different  from 
assuming  that  reason  is  sufficient  for  discovering  every- 
thing that  treats  of  God  in  his  relation  to  and  his  purposes 
concerning  man ;  and  different,  too,  from  discriminating 
between  what  contradicts  reason  and  what  is  simply  above 
and   beyond   reason.       When    the  "  higher   criticism,"   so 


A    DEFINITE    POLITY.  467 

called,  settles  any  fact  relating  to  the  authorship  and  date 
of  the  contents  of  the  Divine  Record,  men  will  be  unwise 
to  reject  its  findings;  but  at  present  it  has  reached  no  such 
certainty,  and  no  man  can  say  that  he  yet  has  its  final  word. 
The  masters  in  it  are  constantly  changing  their  opinion  as 
to  what  it  has  proven,  and  are  probably -a  long  way  from 
unanimity  as  to  what  its  final  word  will  be.  They  are  un- 
wise men  in  any  church  who  are  so  eager  to  tell  new  things 
that  they  treat  guesses  as  discoveries  and  tentative  views 
as  demonstrations.  The  advice  given  by  some  few  now 
among  us  who  are  so  enamored  of  novelties  as  to  jump  at 
conclusions  which  to-morrow  may  be  repudiated  by  the 
wise,  to  lea\-e  our  work  of  interpreting  and  enforcing  the 
truths  and  duties  revealed  by  the  Son  of  God,  as  recorded 
by  the  Evangelists,  and  to  announce  the  advent  of  the 
"  higher  criticism,"  may  well  be  unheeded  and  unnoticed. 
Passing  by  further  notices  of  experiments  in  seeking 
uniformity  of  action,  we  come  to  the  year  1855,  when  a 
new  constitution  was  adopted  by  the  General  Convention, 
in  which  occurred  the  following  mandatory  clause :.  the 
convention  "  shall  adopt  such  Rules  and  Regulations  as 
shall  be  necessary  to  secure  a  Uniform  System  of  Fellow- 
ship and  Discipline  throughout  the  denomination.  ...  It 
shall  also  be  the  ultimate  tribunal  by  which  shall  be  adju- 
dicated all  cases  of  dispute  and  dififerences  "between  State 
Conventions,  and  a  Court  of  Final  Appeal  before  which 
may  be  brought  cases  of  Discipline  and  questions  of  Gov- 
ernment not  provided  for  nor  settled  by  subordinate  bod- 
ies." In  1859  an  effort  was  renewed  to  make  a  "  more 
complete  organization  of  the  State  and  General  Conven- 
tions." From  year  to  year  the  whole  subject  was  in  the 
hands  of  committees  who  were  giving  much  time  and 
labor  to  its  consideration.  The  coming  on  of  the  war 
greatly  hindered  their  work,  as  the  public  mind  was  pre- 


468  THE    UNIVEKSALISTS.  [Chap.  viii. 

occupied  with  the  affairs  of  the  nation.  When  at  last  they 
reported  and  their  action  was  ratified  by  a  majority  of 
the  State  Conventions,  an  entirely  new  order  of  manage- 
ment was  entered  upon  in  1865.  An  Act  of  Incorpora- 
tion was  obtained  in  1866,  and  from  that  time  on  to  the 
present  the  General  Convention  has  been  an  authority  and 
power,  standing  at  the  head  of  the  Universalist  organiza- 
tions and  guiding  their  enterprises.  Slight  modifications 
in  the  form  of  some  of  the  laws  have  been  made  from 
time  to  time  since  1865,  but  all  with  the  intent  to  make 
more  efficient  the  purpose  and  work  to  which  the  national 
organization  was  then  committed.  The  most  notable  of 
these  was  made  in  the  new  cast  of  the  constitution  in 
1870.  Under  this  we  now  have  uniformity  in  rules  of 
fellowship,  ordination,  ^nd  discipline,  the  collection  of 
needed  statistics,  the  raising  and  disbursing  of  money,  and 
the  general  management  of  important  church  enterprises. 
The  sessions  of  the  convention  are  now  held  biennially, 
and  its  work  in  the  interim  is  carried  on  by  a  board  of 
trustees. 

In  1870  occurred  the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of 
Rev.  John  Murray's  first  sermon  in  America.  It  was 
commemorated  by  the  creation  of  a  fund  designated  as 
the  Murray  Centenary  Fund,  amounting  to  $102,228,  the 
income  of  which  is  devoted  to  "  the  aid  of  theological  stu- 
dents, the  distribution  of  Universalist  literature,  church 
extension,  and  the  missionary  cause."  Other  offerings 
during  the  year,  which  included  payment  of  church  debts, 
building  of  churches,  and  endowment  of  schools  and  col- 
leges, aggregated  $846,309.  The  Murray  Fund  is  ad- 
ministered, with  other  funds  since  accumulated,  by  the 
trustees  of  the  General  Convention.  These  funds  now 
aggregate  $262,259.  State  Conventions  and  other  mis- 
sionary bodies  hold,   in  addition  to  the  foregoing,  funds 


MISS/ON   TO  JAPAN.  469 

for  home  missionary  purposes  amounting  to  $360,000, 
making  in  all  $600,000  for  general  denominational  pur- 
poses. 

To  assist  in  the  work  of  the  centenary  year,  the  women 
of  the  Universalist  Church  formed  an  Aid  Association  and 
rendered  great  service.  When  this  work  was  accomplished 
they  enlarged  the  sphere  of  their  operations  and  became 
incorporated  as  "  The  Woman's  Centenary  Association." 
Since  1875  they  have  supported  a  missionary  in  Scotland 
and  have  also  contributed  to  home  missionary  enterprises. 
They  have  a  permanent  fund  of  $12,603,  ^'"icl  their  annual 
receipts  and  disbursements  are  about  $4000.  They  publish 
a  large  number  of  valuable  tracts,  and  are  now  seeking  to 
organize  parish  and  State  auxiliaries. 

In  1890  the  sum  of  $62,000,  one  fifth  payable  annually, 
having  been  subscribed,  the  General  Convention  estab- 
lished a  mission  in  Japan  and  sent  out  George  L.  Perin, 
D.D.,  missionary  in  charge,  Rev.  I.  W.  Gate  and  Miss  M. 
C.  Schouler,  assistants.  Subsequently  Rev.  Clarence  E. 
Rice  was  added  to  the  corps.  Beyond  the  most  sanguine 
hopes  the  mission  has  to  the  present  time  won  great  suc- 
cess. The  results  are  thus  summarized  by  Rev.  Dr. 
Perin:  "A  church  building  with  settled  pastor  in  Koji- 
machi,  Tokyo;  another  church  with  settled  pastor  at 
Shiba,  Tokyo.  Two  preaching-stations  with  two  evan- 
gelists in  Osaka.  One  preaching-station  and  regular 
evangelist  at  Shizuoka.  One  preaching-station  and  one 
ordained  minister  at  Sendai.  One  station  and  one  evan- 
gelist at  Okitsu.  One  church  with  meeting-house  and 
regular  student  supply  at  Hoden,  and  in  all  these  places 
regular  baptized  members  of  the  church.  [Baptized  con- 
verts about  one  hundred  and  fifty.]  In  literature  we  have 
six  tracts,  one  book,  and  a  regular  monthly  magazine  in  the 
vernacular.      In  schools  we  have  one  theological  school  in 


470  THE    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  viii. 

Tokyo  [ten  students],  one  girls'  school  in  Tokyo,  and  one 
girls'  school  in  Shizuoka."  ^ 

Much  home  missionary  work  is  done  by  the  General 
Convention  in  localities  where  there  are  no  State  organi- 
zations and  also  in  aiding  weak  State  organizations.  In 
addition  to  and  independent  of  the  Woman's  Centenary 
Association,  Women's  State  Missionary  Associations  exist 
in  California,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Iowa,  Massachusetts,  Ohio, 
and  Wisconsin. 

At  the  session  of  the  General  Convention  in  1834  the 
Universalist  Historical  Society  was  formed.  Its  object  is 
"  to  collect  and  preserve  facts  pertaining  to  the  history 
and  condition  of  the  doctrine  of  Universalism ;  together 
with  books  and  papers  having  reference  to  the  same  sub- 
ject." As  incorporated  in  1877  the  society  is  "composed 
of  such  persons  interested  in  its  objects  as  shall  sign  its 
By-Laws,  and  by  the  payment  of  One  Dollar  become 
members  for  one  year,  Life  Members  by  the  payment  of 
Twenty  Dollars  at  one  time,  Honorary  Members  for  Life 
by  the  payment  of  Fifty  Dollars,  and  Patrons  by  the  pay- 
ment of  One  Hundred  Dollars."  The  first  president  of 
the  society  was  Hosea  Ballou,  2d,  D.D. ;  its  secretary, 
who  has  held  the  office  to  the  present  time,  Thomas  J. 
Sawyer,  D.D.  A  very  valuable  library,  consisting  of  over 
three  thousand  volumes  of  books  and  perhaps  an  equal 
number  of  sermons,  discussions,  pamphlets,  tracts,  and  man- 
uscripts, has  been  collected,  and  has  its  present  home  in 
the  Miner  Hall,  a  building  erected  for  the  Divinity  School 
of  Tufts  College,  Massachusetts,  by  A.  A.  Miner,  D.D.  No 
such  collection  of  works  on  tlie  subject  of  Universalism, 
both  pro  and  con,  can  be  found  elsewhere. 

1  "  Our  Word  and  Work  for  Missions,"  Boston  Universalist  Publishing 
House,  1894,  p.  125. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

LITERATURE — IIVMNOLOGY. 

The  literature  created  by  the  agitation  of  the  questions 
involved  in  the  doctrine  of  Universalism,  both  in  its  de- 
fense and  in  antagonism  thereof,  has  been  voluminous. 
Some  hints  in  regard  to  it  in  foreign  countries  have  been 
given  in  chapters  i.  and  ii.  In  this  country  it  had  reached, 
in  1886,  2096  titles  of  books  and  pamphlets.^  This  in- 
cludes many  written  and  oral  discussions,  and  other  polem- 
ical works ;  theological  treatises ;  books  of  devotion  and  for 
the  cultivation  of  the  spiritual  life ;  histories  and  historical 
discourses ;  biographies  and  sermons.  To  the  above  enu- 
meration of  titles  must  be  added  182  periodicals,  including 
weekly,  monthly,  and  quarterly  papers  and  magazines. 
Many  of  these  were  short-lived,  some  were  merged  in 
more  vigorously  sustained  publications,  a  few  of  which 
have  been  in  existence  from  sixty-seven  to  seventy- five 
years.  Four  weekly  papers,  one  semi-monthly,  three 
monthly  magazines,  and  a  register  published  annually 
since  1836,  i"epresent  the  periodicals  now  issued. 

The  first  Universalist  periodical  in  America  was  "The 
Free  Universal  Magazine,"  edited  by  Rev.  Abel  Sarjent, 
whose  "  Unitarian  Universalism  "  has  already  been  referred 
to.  It  was  in  existence  only  a  year,  and  was  issued  quar- 
terly, published  part  of  the  time  in  New  York  and  a  part 
in  Baltimore.      One    of   its   most   prominent   contributors 

1  See  Bibliography  a]ipendecl  to  my  "  History  of  Universalism  in  Amer- 
ica," vol.  ii.,  pp.  485,  589. 

471 


472  THE    UNIVEKSALISTS.  [Chap.  ix. 

was  Christopher  Marshall,  of  Philadelphia,  eminent  among 
the  patriots  of  his  day.  The  first  weekly  paper  was  the 
"  Universalist  Magazine,"  edited  by  Rev.  Hosea  Ballon, 
and  issued  in  Boston  in  1819.  Under  various  names  it 
survives  to  the  present  and  is  the  "  Christian  Leader." 
The  first  magazine,  "The  Universalist  Expositor,"  began 
in  1830,  and  was  published  once  in  two  months,  edited  by 
Rev.  Messrs.  Hosea  Ballou  and  Hosea  Ballou,  2d.  With 
some  interregnums,  the  publication  was  continued  until 
1 840,  and  it  was  a  valuable  medium  for  conveying  to  the 
public  important  papers  which  were  too  lengthy  and 
learned  for  the  weekly  papers.  It  was  followed  in  1844 
by  the  "  Universalist  Quarterly,"  edited  by  Rev.  Hosea 
Ballou,  2d,  for  the  first  fourteen  years.  After  a  useful 
career  for  the  public  for  forty-eight  years,  but  at  a  con- 
tinuous loss  to  the  publishers,  its  publication  was  discon- 
tinued. The  first  monthly  magazine  was  "  The  Univer- 
salist "  ;  the  name  soon  changed  to  "The  Universalist  and 
Ladies'  Repository."  For  many  years  this  was  a  very 
popular  magazine  and  introduced  to  the  public  many 
literary  women  of  the  Universalist  Church.  Its  first  edi- 
tor was  the  Rev.  Benjamin  Whittemore.  Its  publication 
ceased  in  1874. 

The  desire  for  a  Universalist  Publishing  House  was  long 
cherished,  but  no  decisive  step  was  taken  toward  its  reali- 
zation until  the  last  of  January,  1862,  when  a  meeting  was 
held  to  consider  the  ways  and  means  of  establishing  "  a 
denominational  paper,  to  be  the  organ  of  the  Universalists 
of  Massachusetts,  and  of  such  other  States  as  shall  elect." 
It  was  proposed  to  organize  a  corporation  the  total  num- 
ber of  shares  in  which  should  be  two  hundred  and  fifty, 
an  act  of  incorporation  to  be  sought  when  the  full  number 
of  shares  had  been  subscribed.  The  Executive  Committee 
of   the    Massachusetts    Universalist    Convention   cordially 


ruBLisiuNG  HOUSE.  473 

approved  the  plan,  and  the  stock  was  at  once  taken,  the 
originally  proposed  amount  being  enlarged.  The  stock- 
holders organized  in  April,  1862,  as  "The  New  England 
Universalist  Publishing  House."  In  1867  the  name  was 
changed,  the  words  "  New  England  "  being  dropped.  One 
of  the  early  adopted  by-laws  contained  a  provision  that 
"  When  the  business  of  the  Corporation  shall  have  paid  its 
expenses  and  redeemed  the  stock,  the  stockholders  shall 
transfer  all  its  rights  and  interests,  in  trust,  to  twenty-one 
permanent,  or  Life  Trustees,  for  the  benefit  of  the  Uni- 
versalist denomination.  Said  trustees  to  be  at  first  elected 
by  the  stockholders,  the  principle  .of  selection  to  be  based 
on  the  pro  rata  interest  in  the  subscription  list  of  the 
weekly  paper  at  the  time  of  said  election."  This  contin- 
gency was  met  in  1871.  Fourteen  members  of  the  first 
board  were  from  Massachusetts,  two  from  Rhode  Island, 
two  from  Vermont,  and  one  each  from  Maine,  New  Hamp- 
shire, and  Connecticut.  A  Publication  Fund  was  created 
in  1873.  The  total  assets  of  the  house  are  now  $200,390. 
It  publishes  and  owns  the  titles  and  copyrights  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  vc^lumes  and  five  periodicals,  one  of  the 
latter  being  published  in  Chicago,  111.,  where  the  house  has 
a  branch  office. 

From  the  hymn-books  in  general  use  a  hundred  and 
twenty-five  years  ago,  it  was  difficult  for  Universalists  to 
select  any  that  did  not  decidedly  antagonize  their  belief. 
To  remedy  this  difficulty,  Mr.  Murray  published  in  1776  a 
collection  originally  issued  in  London,  entitled  "  Christian 
Hymns,  Poems,  and  Spiritual  Songs,  Sacred  to  the  Praise 
of  God  our  Saviour.  By  James  and  John  Relly."  An- 
other edition,  with  hymns  added  by  Mr.  Murray,  was  pub- 
lished in  1782.  These  hymns  were  all  pervaded  with  the 
peculiar  Rellyan  theology,  and  many  of  them  were  simply 
arguments,  therefore,  in  rhyme.     As  a  general  thing  they 


474  ^'-^^^    UiVirERSA LISTS.  [Chap.  ix. 

were  lengthy,  some  having  as  many  as  thirty  and  few  less 
than  seven  verses.  They  were  also  in  very  irregular 
meters,  for  the  most  part,  and  a  peculiar  tune  must  have 
been  needed  to  sing  a  verse  like  this : 

Now,  through  the  Saviour's  blood,  we  prove 
The  Fatlier's  heart  and  nature  love. 

And  all  our  warfare  finished ; 
Nor  good,  nor  bad,  as  wrought  by  man, 
Availeth  here;  nor  rs  this  plan 
Added  to  or  diniinish'd. 
Our  bliss 
Is  this : 
Jestcs  lives  us, 
Freely  gives  us 
(True  the  story) 
All  his  Sonship,  fruits,  and  glory. 

In  1784  Mr.  Winchester  prepared  for  his  congregation 
who  had  followed  him  out  of  the  Baptist  Church,  a  book 
bearing  this  title:  "A  Choice  Collection  of  Hymns  from 
Various  Authors,  adapted  to  Publick  Worship.  Designed 
for  the  Edification  of  the  Pious  of  all  Denominations ;  but 
more  Particularly  for  the  Use  of  the  Baptist  Church  in 
Philadelphia." 

It  was  a  selection  of  150  hymns  from  former  books  and 
was  appended  to  an  older  collection,  by  Mr.  Winchester,  of 
204  hymns. 

At  the  session  of  the  Philadelphia  Convention,  1791, 
and  as  the  result  of  a  discussion  on  the  desirableness  of  a 
collection  of  hymns  that  should  be  acceptable  to  all  the 
Universalists  of  the  country,  a  committee  consisting  of 
four  clergymen  and  five  laymen  was  appointed  to  prepare 
such  a  book.  At  once  proceeding  to  their  work,  the  com- 
mittee had  their  selections  made,  and  the  book  agreed 
upon  with  a  printer  by  the  following  November.  But  cor- 
respondence with  brethren  in  the  Boston  church,  whose  in- 


CONVENTIOX  IIWMX-BOOK.  475 

dorsement  was  desired,  but  who  prefered  something  differ- 
ent, delayed  the  publication,  in  the  hope  that  differences 
might  be  satisfactorily  adjusted.  The  committee  desired 
a  book  which  should  give  prominence  to  Universalist  doc- 
trines, while  the  Bostonians  insisted  that  it  should  be  ex- 
clusively a  book  of  praise,  and  not  of  argument.  As  no 
agreement  was  possible,  the  convention  instructed  their 
committee  to  proceed  at  once  with  the  publication.  The 
Boston  church  issued  their  book  about  the  same  time. 
The  title  of  the  convention  book  was :  "  Evangelical 
Psalms,  Hymns,  and  Spiritual  Songs ;  Selected  from  Vari- 
ous Authors ;  and  published  by  a  Committee  of  the  Con- 
vention of  the  Churches  believing  in  the  Restitution  of 
All  Men."  The  book  contained  192  hymns.  About  one 
half  were  selected  from  so-called  orthodox  collections,  and 
the  remainder  were  by  Uni\-ersalist  writers.  Silas  Ballou, 
a  layman  residing  in  Richmond,  N.  H.,  published  a  hymn- 
book  in  1785,  and  several  of  its  hymns  are  in  the  conven- 
tion book.  Mr.  Ballou  could  rhyme  with  great  ease,  and 
had  made  himself  quite  famous  in  writing  patriotic  odes, 
funeral  elegies,  and  festive  songs  for  social  celebrations, 
but  his  hymns  were  deficient  in  poetic  form,  and  full  of 
argument.  Rev.  Artis  Seagrave,  one  of  the  committee, 
was  a  man  of  devout  spirit  and  possessed  no  little  poetic 
taste.  He  contributed  twenty-one  h}-mns  to  the  collec- 
tion. One  of  the  best  was  the  following,  to  be  sung  at 
closing  a  session  of  the  convention : 

Dear  Lord,  we  now  must  part — 

A  parting  Messing  give : 
With  thy  rich  love  fill  every  heart, 

That  we  in  love  may  live. 

And  though  we're  far  away, 

May  we  unite<l  be, 
And  for  each  otlier  ever  pray 

That  we  may  live  in  thee. 


476  THE    UNIVERSA LISTS.  [Chap.  ix. 

All  glory  to  the  Lamb 

May  we  forever  sing, 
And  bid  farewell,  while  we  proclaim 

Hosannas  to  our  King. 

The  Boston  collection  was  entitled :  "  Psalms,  Hymns, 
and  Spiritual  Songs;  Selected  and  Original.  Designed 
for  the  Church  Universal,  in  Public  and  Private  Devo- 
tion." It  was  compiled  by  Rev.  George  Richards  and 
Oliver  Wellington  Lane,  and  contained  328  hymns.  The 
compilers  selected  from  all  hymn-books  in  their  reach, 
revised  many  of  Relly's  hymns,  and  added  a  large  number 
of  original  hymns  by  Rev.  George  Richards.  Mr.  Richards 
was  an  educated  man  and  had  long  been  a  school-teacher 
in  Boston.  He  was  an  intense  patriot  and  celebrated  in 
verse  many  of  the  events  and  heroes  of  the  Revolution. 
Many  of  his  hymns  have  great  merit.  In  1801,  while 
pastor  at  Portsmouth,  N.  H.,  he  pubhshed  a  collection  of 
444  hymns,  50  of  them  being  from  his  own  pen.  In  con- 
sequence of  his  obtaining  a  copyright,  a  second  edition  of 
the  Boston  hymn-book,  published  in  1802,  omitted  all  his 
hymns  and  put  others  in  their  place. 

In  1807,  the  General  Convention  appointed  a  committee, 
of  which  Rev.  Hosea  Ballou  was  chairman,  to  furnish  a 
suitable  hymn-book,  alleging  that  "  the  various  collections 
which  have  heretofore  been  published  have  never  had  so 
general  circulation  as  to  accommodate  but  few;  and  that 
they  have  been  especially  tinctured  with  error  in  regard 
to  the  doctrine  of  the  atonement."  The  committee  say  in 
their  preface  to  the  new  book  that  "  it  was  at  first  their 
intention  and  also  the  expectation  of  the  convention  that 
the  new  book  should  have  been  a  collection,  with  the  ad- 
dition of  a  few  original  hymns  "  ;  but  the  committee,  for 
what  they  considered  good  reasons,  changed  their  minds 
and  brought  out   "an   entire   new  work."     As  a  conse- 


HOSEA    BALLOU'S   CONVENTION  HYMN.  477 

quence,  none  who  furnished  the  hymns  being  accustomed 
to  such  work,  and  some  of  them  wholly  unfitted  for  it,  a 
very  crude  affair  was  produced.  Some  of  the  hymns  had 
merit,  but  most  of  them  were  void  of  all  poetic  and  hymn 
quality.  Mr.  Ballou  wrote  the  largest  number.  One,  at 
least,  of  his  has  merit  and  would  fill  a  high  place  in  any 
collection  of  hymns.  It  was  the  following,  intended  to  be 
sung  at  the  General  Convention,  and  frequently  so  used  to 
the  present  time : 

Dear  Lord,  behold  thy  servants  here, 

From  various  parts,  together  meet, 
To  tell  their  labors  through  the  year, 

And  lay  the  harvest  at  thy  feet. 

In  thy  wide  fields  and  vineyards,  Lord, 

We've  toiled  and  wrought  with  watchful  care; 

Thy  wheat  hath  flourished  by  thy  Word, 
Thy  love  consumed  the  choking  tare. 

The  reapers  cry,  "  Thy  fields  are  white. 

All  ready  to  be  gathered  in. 
And  harvests  wave,  in  changing  light. 

Far  as  the  eye  can  trace  the  scene." 

Lord,  bless  us  while  we  here  remain ; 

Witli  holy  love  our  bosoms  fill ; 
Oh  may  thy  doctrine  drop  like  rain, 

And  like  the  silent  dew  distill! 

While  we  attend  thy  churches'  care. 

Oh  grant  us  wisdom  from  above ; 
With  prudent  thought  and  humble  prayer, 

May  we  fulfill  the  works  of  love. 

This  book  passed  through  two  editions,  and  for  a  few 
years  was  quite  extensively  used  in  New  England.  In 
1 82 1  Rev.  Messrs.  Rosea  Ballou  and  Edward  Turner 
brought  out  "  The  Universalist's  Hymn-Book :  A  New 
Collection  of  Psalms  and  Hymns,  for  the  Use  of  the  Uni- 


478  THE    UNIVERSALISTS.  {ilnw.  ix. 

versalist  Societies."  Many  hymns  from  standard  authors 
were  introduced,  a  large  number  of  the  less  poetic  com- 
positions in  the  "  Convention  Hymn-Book  "  were  dis- 
carded, and  a  book  of  considerable  merit  was  produced. 
For  this  collection  Mr.  Ballou  composed  a  hymn  which  is 
to  this  day  the  most  popular  of  all  the  Universalist  hymns. 
It  was  the  following: 

In  God's  eternity 

There  shall  a  day  arise, 
When  all  the  race  of  man  shall  be 

With  Jesus  in  the  skies. 

As  night  before  the  rays 

Of  morning  flees  away, 
Sin  shall  retire  before  the  blaze 

Of  God's  eternal  day. 

As  music  fills  the  grove 

When  stormy  clouds  are  past. 
Sweet  anthems  of  redeeming  love 

Shall  all  employ  at  last. 

Redeemed  from  death  and  sin. 

Shall  Adam's  numerous  race 
A  ceaseless  song  of  praise  begin, 

And  shout  redeeming  grace. 

The  first  Universalist  Hymn  and  Tune  Book  was  com- 
piled and  published  in  1839  by  Rev.  Abel  C.  Thomas, 
and  was  entitled  "  Hymns  of  Zion,  with  Appropriate 
Music."  It  contained  578  hymns  and  196  tunes.  It  in- 
troduced many  popular  airs,  with  hymns  adapted  thereto, 
as  also  many  standard  hymns  and  tunes.  A  number  of 
hymn-books  followed,  so  that,  in  all,  the  writer  has  been 
able  to  collect  twenty-seven  different  volumes,  exclusive 
of  quite  as  many  designed  for  social  worship  and  for  the 
use  of  Sunday-schools.  The  most  important,  besides  those 
before  mentioned,  are  a  small  German  collection  entitled 


JIYMX-BOOKS.  479 

"  Das  neue  Allgemeine  Gesang-Biichlin,  Zum  Gebrauch 
aller  Aufrichten  Christen,"  prepared  for  the  use  of  a  few 
German  congregations  in  Pennsylvania  in  1832.  In  1837, 
Hosea  Ballon,  2d.,  D.D.,  published  "  A  Collection  of  Psalms 
and  Hymns  for  the  Use  of  Universalist  Societies  and  Fami- 
lies." Dr.  Ballou  had  a  fine  poetic  taste  and  his  hymns 
were  well  selected.  Two  from  his  own  pen,  the  one  be- 
ginning : 

Praise  ye  the  Lord  around  whose  throne 
All  heaven  in  ceaseless  worship  waits, 

Whose  glory  fills  the  worlds  unknown — 
Praise  ye  the  Lord  from  Zion's  gates. 

has  all  the  desirable  qualities  of  a  hymn  of  praise.  The 
other,  also  a  fine  hymn  of  general  praise,  begins : 

Ye  realms  below  the  skies, 

Your  ^Laker's  praises  sing; 
Let  boundless  honors  rise 
To  heaven's  eternal  King. 
O  bless  his  name  whose  love  extends 
Salvation  to  the  world's  far  ends. 

A  book  of  hymns  for  the  use  of  Universalists  in  the 
West  was  compiled  by  Rev.  George  Rogers  and  published 
in  Cincinnati  in  1856.  It  retained  many  of  the  standards 
and  also  presented  many  new  hymns,  some  of  them  from 
the  pen  of  Alice  Cary,  and  some  from  ot>lier  before  un- 
known Universalist  authors. 

Our  space  does  not  permit  a  special  notice  of  but  one 
more  :  "  Hymns  for  Christian  Devotion  ;  especially  adapted 
to  the  Universalist  Denomination.  By  J.  G.  Adams  and 
\\.  II.  Cliapin."  The  compilers  were  well  fitted  for  their 
work,  which  they  brought  out  in  1846,  and  which,  ha\-ing 
passed  through  about  seventy  editions,  is  still  in  use  in 
many  congregations.      It  contained  over  a  tiunisand  well- 


480  THE    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  ix. 

selected  hymns,  many  of  them  from  later  Universalist 
writers  than  had  appeared  in  preceding  hymn-books. 
Here  appears  Rev.  Dr.  Chapin's  beautiful  Christmas 
hymn: 

Hark!   hark!  with  harps  of  gold, 

What  anthem  do  they  sing? 
The  radiant  clouds  have  backward  rolled. 

And  angels  smite  the  string. 

Glory  to  God!  bright  wings 

Spread  glist'ning  and  afar, 
And  on  the  hallowed  rapture  rings 

From  circling  star  to  star. 

Dr.  Adams's  hymn  of  faith : 

Heaven  fs  here ;  its  hymns  of  gladness 

Cheer  the  true  believer's  way, 
In  this  world  where  sin  and  sadness 

Often  change  to  night  our  day. 

Mrs.  Caroline  M.  Sawyer's  finely  expressed  prayer: 

We  gather  in  the  name  of  God, 

And,  bowing  down  the  head, 
We  stretch  our  waiting  hands  abroad. 

And  humbly  ask  for  aid. 

For  aid,  when  o'er  the  spirit's  day, 

Thick  clouds  of  darkness  rest. 
That  we  may  chase  the  gloom  away, 

And  light  the  darkened  breast. 

Here,    too,    first   appeared   Mrs.   Mary   A.  Livermore's 
hymn  on  the  reclaiming  power  of  love : 

Jesus,  what  precept  is  like  thine, 
"  Forgive,  as  ye  would  be  forgiven!  " 

If  heeded,  O  what  power  divine 
Would  then  transform  our  earth  to  heaven. 


I/VMX-  IVKl  TERS.  48 1 

Here,  also,  are  hymns  from  the  gifted  pen  of  Rev. 
Henry  Bacon,  from  Julia  A.  Fletcher,  Mrs.  L.  J.  B.  Case, 
Sarah  C.  Edgarton,  Sir  James  Edward  Smith,  and  many 
others  whose  work  has  enriched  the  literature  of  the 
Universalist  Church. 


CHAPTER   X. 

EDUCATION — YOUNG   PEOPLE. 

Sunday-schools  in  America  no  doubt  date  from  the 
establishing  of  one  by  the  branch  of  the  Dunkers  located 
at  Ephrata,  Pa.,  in  1740,  but  discontinued  in  1777  in  con- 
sequence of  the  occupation  of  the  buildings  of  that  com- 
munity for  hospital  purposes  after  the  Battle  of  Brandy- 
wine.  The  action  of  the  Philadelphia  Convention,  1790, 
on  the  subject  of  schools  somewhat  model  eel  after  those  es- 
tablished ten  years  before  by  Robert  Raikes,  of  Glouces- 
ter, EnglaiTd,  has  been  mentioned  in  chapter  v.,  as  well  as 
the  part  taken  by  Dr.  Benjamin  Rush  in  arranging  what 
the  convention  adopted.  This  may  have  some  significance 
in  connection  with  the  fact  that  later  that  year  he  held  a 
consultation  with  Bishop  William  White,  Episcopalian,  and 
Matthew  Carey,  Roman  Catholic,  which  resulted  in  a  pub- 
lic meeting  called  by  them  in  December,  at  which  time  a 
constitution  for  "  The  First-Day  or  Sunday-school  So- 
ciety," of  Philadelphia,  was  adopted.  Their  object  was 
the  same  as  that  of  Raikes  in  his  work.  After  petitioning 
the  legislature  in  vain  for  the  establishment  of  Sunday- 
schools  as  free  schools,  they  raised  the  necessary  funds  for 
carrying  on  the  work  by  voluntary  contributions.  During 
the  first  year  the  number  of  schools  increased  to  three, 
containing  about  two  hundred  pupils  each.  Early  and 
persistent  efforts  were  made  to  use  these  schools  for  secta- 
rian purposes,  but  they  were  defeated  by  the  managers. 

482 


SUNDA  Y-SCIIOOLS.  4}i3 

By  1816  so  many  of  the  patrons  had  withdrawn  their  sup- 
port for  the  purpose  of  forming  sectarian  schools,  that  the 
work  of  the  society  ceased.  It  is  to  be  regarded,  however, 
as  the  pioneer  of  the  continuous  Sunday-school  enterprise 
in  this  country.  One  month  after  it  began,  viz.,  in  April, 
I  79 1,  Oliver  Wellington  Lane,  a  school-teacher  in  Boston, 
and  a  deacon  in  the  Universalist  Church,  opened  a  Sunday- 
school  in  his  school-room.  This  was  continued  until  Mr. 
Lane's  death  in  1 793.  This  was  also  according  to  the  plan 
of  the  Raikes'  school,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  it  was  the 
first  Sunday-school  set  up  in  New  England. 

The  Universalists  of  Philadelphia  probably  did  their 
share  in  supporting  the  schools  of  "  The  First-Day  So- 
ciety "  ;  and  when  it  ceased  operations,  they  organized  two 
schools  on  the  .same  plan,  one  for  girls,  October,  18 16,  and 
one  for  boys  in  December  of  the  same  year.  The  children 
of  the  very  poor  were  sought  out,  decently  clothed,  and 
well  instructed.  One  of  the  rules  was :  "  The  tutors  shall 
instruct  the  children  in  reading,  and  in  committing  to  mem- 
ory passages  of  Holy  Writ;  They  shall  enjoin  their  fre- 
quent attendance  at  church,  and  endeavor  to  lead  them  in 
the  path  of  virtue  by  pointing  out  the  happiness  attending 
it,  and  the  fatal  effects  and  misery  of  vice."  Applicants 
became  so  numerous,  teachers  so  few,  and  funds  so  low, 
that  ere  long  it  became  necessar)^  to  limit  each  department 
to  fifty  .scholars.  The  first  Universalist  Sunday-school  on 
the  modern  plan  was  formed  in  the  Universalist  church 
in  Boston,  in  1817,  under  the  ministry  of  Rev.  Paul  Dean. 
When  Mr.  Dean  resigned  in  1823,  the  school  became  dor- 
mant several  years.  Our  oldest  Sunday-school  having  un- 
interrupted existence  from  the  time  of  its  organization  in 
June,  1820,  is  at  Gloucester,  Mass.  There  are  now  about 
seven  hundred  Sunday-schools,  with  a  membership  of 
nearly  fifty-nine  thousand. 


484  THE    UNIVEKSALISTS.  [Chap.  x. 

During  his  residence  in  Gloucester,  probably  as  early  as 
1780,  Rev.  Mr.  Murray  instituted  the  rite  of  the  Dedication 
of  Children,  parents  bringing  their  young  children  to  church 
and  having  them  received  by  the  minister,  and  dedicated  as 
God's  gift,  to  his  loving  service.  This  ceremony,  peculiar 
to  the  Universalist  Church,  has  been  more  or  less  observed 
through  our  entire  history,  but  for  many  years  no  particu- 
lar day  was  designated  for  it.  On  the  second  Sunday  in 
June,  1856,  C.  H.  Leonard,  D.D.,  then  pastor  of  the  church 
at  Chelsea,  Mass.,  instituted  "  Children's  Sunday,"  a  day 
for  the  special  observance  of  this  rite,  and  for  services  par- 
ticularly adapted  to  the  capacity,  needs,  and  enjoyment  of 
the  children  of  the  Sunday-school.  The  service  has  been 
annually  observed  in  that  church  ever  since,  and  was  soon 
taken  up  in  other  Universalist  churches.  In  1867  the 
General  Convention  commended  the  observance  to  all,  and 
in  1868  "recommended  that  the  second  Sunday  in  June 
of  each  year  be  named  and  set  apart  as  "  Children's  Sun- 
day." The  day  is  now  very  generally  observed,  and  has 
been  so  designated  and  used  by  other  Protestant  churches. 

A  very  serious  annoyance  to  Universalists  in  the  early 
years  of  this  century  arose  from  the  fact  that  the  boarding- 
schools,  academies,  and  colleges  of  the  land  were  nearly  all 
controlled  by  denominations  of  Christians  hostile  to  the 
doctrine  of  universal  grace,  who  often  considered  it  more 
important  to  indoctrinate  the  pupils  with  their  sectarian 
views  than  to  give  instruction  in  the  branches  which  they 
had  advertised  to  teach.  Not  only  were  pupils  compelled 
by  school  regulations  to  attend  a  particular  church,  against 
their  wishes  and  the  preference  of  their  parents,  but  they 
were  also  subjected  to  ridicule  for  any  manifestation  of  re- 
spect for  the  religious  opinions  avowed  in  their  homes,  and 
were  insulted  by  being  compelled  to  listen  to  denunciations 
of  those  opinions  made  in  the  most  opprobrious  terms,  and 


NICHOLS  ACADEMY.  485 

by  hearing  the  characters  of  their  parents  traduced  and 
aspersed  on  account  of  their  reHgious  faith. 

The  first  concerted  effort  to  remedy  this  grievance  by 
estabUshing  schools  which  should  be  under  more  liberal 
control,  was  made  in  181 4,  and  continued  in  the  conven- 
tion and  outside  until  1819,  when  report  was  made  to  the 
convention  that  their  committee  had  succeeded  in  estab- 
lishing the  "  Nichols  Academy,  in  the  town  of  Dudley, 
Mass."  It  was  arranged  that  the  trustees  should  be  mem- 
bers of  the  convention.  Every  step  in  this  action  was 
doubtless  incited  by  Amasa  Nichols,  Esq.,  a  successful 
merchant,  and  an  ardent  Universalist  of  Dudley,  who 
erected  in  181  5,  wholly  at  his  own  expense,  at  a  cost  of 
$10,000,  a  building  for  academical  purposes.  The  build- 
ing was  ready  for  occupation  and  a  school  had  been  opened 
in  it  by  Barton  Ballou,  A.M. — a  graduate  of  Brown  Uni- 
versity, class  of  1813,  and  afterward  a  Universalist  preacher 
— in  1 8 16,  when  by  accidental  fire  it  was  destroyed.  It 
was  at  once  proposed  to  build  anew,  and  outside  aid  was 
solicited.  In  1818  the  new  building  was  so  far  completed 
as  to  be  opened  for  school  purposes,  and  in  18 19  it  was  in- 
corporated by  the  legislature,  the  corporators  being  all 
Universalists.  They  were  in  debt,  the  building  incom- 
pleted, and  by  the  terms  of  the  deed  of  gift,  by  Mr.  Nichols, 
were  obligated  to  maintain  a  school.  In  1823  they  peti- 
tioned the  legislature  for  aid,  the  precedent  of  aiding  such 
institutions  having  been  long  established.  The  petitioners 
were  given  to  understand  by  the  Board  of  Education  that, 
if  they  would  raise  and  secure  to  the  academy  a  fund  of 
not  less  than  $2000,  their  prospects  would  be  good  for  a 
grant  of  half  a  township  of  wild  land  in  Maine.  This  was 
done,  the  grant  obtained,  and  the  land  was  at  once  sold 
for  $2500.  With  this  amount  and  that  from  subscriptions, 
the  building  was  finisliod  and  improved.      At  this  time  the 


486  THE    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  x. 

trustees  made  a  fatal  blunder.  Overlooking  the  conditions 
of  support  by  the  convention,  as  expressed  in  its  votes  in 
1 8 19,  or,  perhaps,  believing  themselves  able  to  change  the 
conditions,  the  majority  of  the  board  reached  the  conclu- 
sion that  if  a  portion  of  their  number  should  be  selected 
from  other  denominations  of  Christians,  it  would  be  to  the 
advantage  of  the  school  in  giving  it  a  non-sectarian  char- 
acter. To  this  Mr.  Nichols  stoutly  objected,  but  was 
overruled,  and  two  vacancies  in  the  board  were  filled  by 
gentlemen  not  Universalists.  Mr.  Nichols  refused  to  be 
reconciled  to  the  change  of  policy,  resigned  his  position  as 
trustee  and  the  office  of  secretary,  and  never  after  took 
any  interest  in  the  affair  of  the  academy.  The  majority 
of  the  board  yielded  to  annoyances  and  discouragements, 
and  resigned  their  positions,  and  the  school  soon  passed 
from  the  control  of  the  Universalists. 

The  subject  of  a  denominational  school  was  agitated  in 
the  State  of  New  York  in  1831.  The  plan  embraced  a 
literary  institution,  "  not  only  for  general  purposes  of 
science  and  literature,  but  with  a  particular  view  of  fur- 
nishing with  an  education  young  men  designed  for  the 
ministry  of  reconciliation."  At  a  meeting  held  in  the  in- 
terest of  the  proposal  it  was  set  forth  that  "  the  respective 
boarding-schools,  academies,  and  colleges  of  this  State  are 
exclusively  controlled  by  various  Christian  denominations 
hostile  to  the  doctrine  of  the  final  holiness  and  purity  of 
all  men ;  that  in  all  these  institutions  the  most  unwarrant- 
able means  are  employed  to  overawe  and  control  the  minds 
of  the  pupils ;  that  they  are  generally  obliged  by  school 
regulations  to  attend  a  particular  church,  without  respect 
to  the  choice  of  the  pupil  or  the  preference  of  friends  ;  that 
they  are  tantalized  by  ridicule  and  menace  for  avowing 
respect  for  principles  and  doctrines  not  approved  by  the 
managers  of  the  institution ;  that  they  are  perpetually  in- 


ACADEMIES.  487 

suited  by  hearini;'  the  sentiments  of  liberal  Christians  de- 
nounced in  the  most  unfeeling  manner  and  opprobrious 
terms,  and  by  hearing  the  characters  of  their  parents  or 
guardians  traduced  or  aspersed  on  account  of  their  religious 
faith  ;  that  they  are  perplexed  and  harassed  with  systematic 
attempts  to  win  them  over  to  the  doctrines  of  a  favorite 
sect.  For  which  purpose  the  catechism  has  been  substi- 
tuted for  books  of  science,  religious  meetings  have  taken 
the  place  of  school  instruction,  and  instructresses  and 
teachers  of  grammar  and  geography  have  become  lecturers 
on  theology." 

The  project  was  heartily  indorsed  by  the  Universalists 
of  the  State,  and  in  November,  1831,  the  male  and  female 
departments  of  the  Clinton  Liberal  Institute  were  opened 
at  Clinton,  Oneida  County.  Suitable  buildings  were  soon 
furnished,  and  largely  under  the  direction  of  the  Rev. 
Stephen  R.  Smith,  who  may  be  said  to  have  been  the 
originator  of  the  project,  certainly  the  most  persistent  and 
untiring  worker  for  its  success,  the  State  was  canv^assed  for 
funds,  and  many  pupils  entered  the  school.  Like  most 
institutions  of  its  kind,  the  institute  has  had  its  trials,  re- 
verses, pecuniary  embarrassments,  and  fluctuating  fortunes. 
In  1879  it  moved  to  I'ort  Plain,  where  it  has  well-equipped 
buildings,  a  large  corps  of  teachers,  and  an  increasing 
patronage. 

Westbrook  Seminary,  located  at  Deering,  Me.,  was 
opened  for  pupils  in  1834,  preparation  therefor  having 
been  begun  in  1831.  In  1863  its  charter  was  so  amended 
that  it  was  empowered  to  prescribe  a  course  of  study  for 
young  ladies  equivalent  to  that  of  any  female  college  in 
New  ICngland,  and  to  confer  the  honors  and  degrees  that 
are  generally  granted  by  female  colleges.  Since  that  time 
the  title  of  the  institution  has  been  the  "  Westbrook  Semi- 
narv  and  I'Y'malc  CollcLre." 


488  THE    UNIVERSALISTS.  [Chap.  x. 

The  Green  Mountain  Perkins  Academy,  at  first  called 
the  "  Green  Mountain  Liberal  Institute,"  located  at  South 
Woodstock,  Vt.,  was  opened  for  pupils  in  1848. 

Dean  Academy,  in  Franklin,  Mass.,  takes  its  name  from 
Oliver  Dean,  M.D.,  its  most  bountiful  patron,  who  gave  at 
first  $50,000  as  a  permanent  fund,  and  $10,000  toward 
the  erection  of  a  suitable  building,  together  with  eight  acres 
of  land  formerly  a  part  of  the  farm  oi  the  famous  Nathaniel 
Emmons,  D.D.  Subsequently  Dr.  Dean's  gifts  were  very 
largely  increased.  The  academy  has  a  fine  property  and 
is  largely  attended. 

Goddard' Seminary  was  first  named  the  "  Green  Moun- 
tain Central  Institute."  Located  in  Barre,  Vt.,  it  was 
opened  for  students  in  1870.  In  November  of  that  year 
the  name  was  changed,  in  memory  of  Mr.  Thomas  A. 
Goddard,  then  deceased,  who,  with  his  wife,  was  deeply 
interested  in  our  educational  enterprises.  It  is  a  flourish- 
ing seminary. 

An  institution  called  the  Throop  University,  in  honor 
of  Hon.  A.  G.  Throop,  who  endowed  it  with  $200,000, 
was  opened  in  Pasadena,  Cal.,  in  1891.  Subsequently  its 
name  was  changed  to  the  Throop  Polytechnic  Institute. 
By  provision  of  its  charter  the  majority  of  its  board  of 
trustees  must  always  be  persons  connected  with  the  Uni- 
versalist  denomination. 

Other  schools  have  been  temporarily  put  in  operation  by 
us,  but  the  above-named  have  alone  reached  permanence. 

It  formed  part  of  the  plan  in  the  effort  begun  by  the 
convention  in  18 14,  to  make  provision  for  theological  edu- 
cation as  well  as  for  secular  and  classical  instruction.  To 
this  end  a  conference  was  sought  with  the  Western  Asso- 
ciation, at  its  session  in  181 5.  Tenacious  opposition  to  a 
theological  institution  and  to  the  proposal  to  give  gratuitous 
instruction  to  indigent  young  men,  which,  it  was  argued. 


THEOLOGICAL   SCHOOL.  489 

had  "  proved  deleterious  to  other  denominations,"  defeated 
the  effort.  In  1827  the  General  Convention  appointed  a 
committee  to  report  a  practicable  plan  for  establishing  a 
theological  seminary.  The  committee  made  no  progress, 
and  no  further  action  was  had  until  the  session  in  1835, 
when  on  motion  of  Rev.  T.  J.  Sawyer,  "  the  subject  was 
recommended  to  the  consideration  of  the  members  of  our 
denomination."  Agitation  succeeded,  and  the  Massachu- 
setts Convention,  at  its  session  in  1840,  resolved  that  it 
was  expedient  to  act,  and  appointed  a  committee  to  nom- 
inate "  a  board  of  trustees,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  select 
a  site  for  an  institution,  to  take  a  deed  thereof  in  trust  for 
this  convention,  to  raise  the  funds,  and  to  erect  a  suitable 
building,  to  appoint  its  principal  and  other  officers,"  etc. 
At  one  of  the  meetings  of  this  committee,  "  in  consequence 
of  an  offer  made  by  Mr.  Charles  Tufts,  of  Charlcstown,  to 
make  a  gift  of  ten  acres  on  Walnut  HilV  as  a  site  for  the 
institution,"  they  agreed  to  call  the  proposed  theological 
school  the  "Walnut  Hill  Evangelical  Seminary."  The 
board  of  trustees  named  by  this  committee,  organized  on 
the  25th  of  January,  1841,  with  Dr.  Oliver  Dean,  president, 
Rev.  Thomas  Whittemore,  secretary,  and  Timothy  Cotting, 
Esq.,  treasurer.  An  agent.  Rev.  Calvin  Gardner,  was  ap- 
pointed to  solicit  funds  for  the  endowment  of  the  seminary. 
But  the  time  evidently  had  not  arrived  for  success.  Strong 
opposition  developed  as  the  canvass  was  pushed,  and  the 
records  contain  no  entry  after  October,  1841. 

In  1845  Rev.  Thomas  J.  Sawyer,  D.D.,  took  charge  of 
the  Clinton  Liberal  Institute,  and  in  addition  to  his  duties 
as  principal  undertook  to  devote  two  hours  each  day  to 
the  instruction  of  such  students  in  theology  as  should  at- 
tend. The  instruction  was  without  cost  to  the  students,  a 
pledge  having  been  made  that  compensation  should  be  ob- 

1  The  liill  now  occupied  by  Tufts  College. 


490  THE    UA' I  VERSA  LISTS.  [Chap.  x. 

tained  for  Dr.  Sawyer  by  general  subscription  and  a  fund 
of  $10,000  should  be  created  for  the  support  of  the  school. 
The  latter  was  not  done,  and  the  former  was  very  incon- 
siderable. Still,  under  manifold  difficulties  and  discour- 
agements. Dr.  Sawyer  persevered  until  the  class  was  sur- 
rendered in  the  autumn  of  1853.  In  all,  thirty-seven 
were  thus  fitted  for  the  ministry.  At  the  present  date 
twelve  of  this  number  are  in  the  Universalist  ministry,  two 
in  the  Unitarian,  one  in  the  Congregationalist,  twelve  in 
secular  business,  and  ten  are  dead.  Some  of  those  in  secu- 
lar business  never  received  ordination. 

In  May,  1847,  pursuant  to  a  call  issued  by  Rev.  Dr. 
Sawyer,  as  advised  by  prominent  Universalist  clergymen, 
a  meeting  was  held  in  the  City  of  New  York  for  the  pur- 
pose of  discussing  the  question  of  establishing  a  college  and 
theological  school.  It  was  a  meeting  of  representative 
men  of  the  denomination,  who,  after  much  earnest  discus- 
sion, decided  that  it  was  desirable  to  establish  a  college  to 
be  "  located  in  the  Valley  of  the  Hudson,  or  the  Mohawk," 
and  that  "  the  wants  of  the  denomination  require  the  per- 
manent establishment  of  a  theological  school,  to  be  located 
by  a  committee  "  then  chosen.  The  plan  for  a  college  was 
pushed,  with  results  to  be  mentioned  presently ;  but  the 
effort  in  regard  to  a  theological  school  languished  until 
taken  up  and  forwarded  by  an  educational  societ}^  organ- 
ized in  1852,  at  a  session  of  the  New  York  State  Conven- 
tion. Subscriptions  amounting  to  a  little  more  than  $26,- 
000  having  been  obtained  by  November,  1854,  a  committee 
was  instructed  to  receive  "  applications  from  any  place 
thought  to  be  a  suitable  location  for  such  an  institution." 
Twelve  applications  with  offers  of  local  help  were  received, 
and  the  committee  decided  on  locating  the  school  at  Can- 
ton, N.  Y.,  which  had  offered  a  site  of  twenty  acres  of  good 
arable  land  valued  at  $3500,  and  \n  erect  a  suitable  build- 


COLLEGES.  49 1 

ing  at  a  cost  of  $i  1,500.  The  school  was  opened  in  April, 
1858. 

Tufts  Divinity  School,  a  department  of  Tufts  College, 
was  opened  in  1869. 

A  theological  department,  now  called  the  Ryder  Divinity 
School,  was  opened  in  Lombard  University  in  1881. 

Tufts  College,  located  in  Medford,  Mass.,  was  the  chief 
outcome  of  the  discussions  at  the  Educational  Convention 
in  New  York  in  1847.  It  occupies  the  site  originally  pro- 
posed for  The  Walnut  Hill  Evangelical  Seminary,  and  is 
named  for  the  late  Charles  Tufts,  the  donor  of  the  land. 
His  original  gift  was  twenty  acres,  increased  by  subsequent 
gifts  to  over  one  hundred  acres.  The  college  was  char- 
tered by  the  legislature  in  1852,  with  power  to  grant  every 
kind  of  degrees  usually  given  by  colleges,  "  except  medical 
degrees."  This  restriction  was  removed  in  1867.  A  med- 
ical department  was  added  to  the  college  in  1893.  Chief 
among  the  benefactors  of  the  college  have  been  Charles 
Tufts,  Dr.  William  J.  Walker,  Dr.  Oliver  Dean,  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Thomas  J.  Goddard,  and  Hon.  P.  T.  Barnum. 

Lombard  University,  located  at  Galesburg,  111.,  grew 
from  an  effort  to  establish  "  a  high-school,  to  be  owned, 
taught,  and  controlled  by  liberal  Christians."  It  was  orig- 
inally chartered  in  185  i,  as  the  "  Illinois  Liberal  Institute." 
By  an  amendment  of  the  charter  in  1853,  the  institute  be- 
came a  college.  Amended  again  in  1857,  it  took  the  name 
which  it  now  bears,  in  honor  of  Mr.  Benjamin  Lombard, 
at  that  time  its  largest  benefactor. 

After  it  had  been  determined  in  1856  to  locate  a  theo- 
logical school  in  Canton,  St.  Lawrence  Co.,  N.  Y.,  it  oc- 
curred to  the  friends  of  the  enterprise,  that  as  no  collegiate 
institution  existed  in  that  section  of  the  State,  a  college 
might  be  established  and  sustained  in  connection  with  the 
theological  school.      An  Act  of  Incorporation  was  therefore 


492  THE    UNIVEKSALISTS.  [Chap.  x. 

obtained,  bearing  date  April  3,  1856,  giving  legal  existence 
to  the  institution  under  the  title  of  "The  St.  Lawrence 
University,"  with  power  to  establish  a  college  and  also  a 
theological  school,  the  funds  of  each  to  be  kept  separate. 
In  April,  1859,  a  collegiate  and  preparatory  department 
was  opened  for  students  fitting  for  college,  or  pursuing  an 
advanced  collegiate  course.  In  1865  the  preparatory  de- 
partment was  suspended  and  the  college  proper  inaugu- 
rated, and  its  first  class  was  graduated. 

In  1869  the  Ohio  Universalist  Convention  authorized 
its  board  of  trustees  and  committee  on  education  to  pro- 
ceed to  establish  a  college.  A  year  later,  after  considering 
several  applications  for  the  location  of  the  proposed  college, 
it  was  voted  that  the  institution  be  proffered  to  the  city  of 
Akron,  on  condition  that  the  citizens  of  Summit  County 
should  legally  secure  to  the  State  Convention  $60,000. 
In  a  short  time  the  sum  required  had  been  exceeded  by 
several  thousand  dollars.  Being  duly  incorporated  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  provisions  of  a  general  act  of  the  legis- 
lature, the  institution  was  named  "  Buchtel  College,"  in 
honor  of  its  chief  patron,  Hon.  John  R.  Buchtel,  and  was 
opened  for  students  in  September,  1872. 

These  thirteen  educational  institutions  are  all  open  to 
men  and  to  women.  They  employ  154  professors  and 
teachers,  have  1564  students,  and  possess  property  and 
funds  aggregating  $3,981,037. 

The  Young  People's  Christian  Union  of  the  Universalist 
Church  was  organized  at  Lynn,  Mass.,  in  1889.  Its  ob- 
ject is  to  unite  the  religious  organizations  of  the  young 
people,  which  exist  under  various  names,  but  most  of  them 
as  Young  People's  Christian  Unions.  Their  purpose  is 
similar  to  that  of  the  Societies  for  Christian  P^ndeavor,  the 
King's  Daughters,  the  P^pworth  League,  and  kindred  or- 
ganizations in  the  churches  of  other  Christian  denomina- 


CONCLUSION.  493 

tions — Christian  culture  and  spiritual  growth.  A  national 
organizer  is  employed,  and  local  organizers  in  several  of  the 
States  having  State  organizations.  There  are  about  300 
organizations  in  connection  with  local  parishes  or  churches, 
and  a  membership  probably  aggregating  over  15,000. 

With  this  brief  mention  of  our  youngest  auxiliary,  we 
bring  this  imperfectly  sketched  history  to  a  close.  The 
Universalist  Church,  whose  story  we  have  thus  faintly  out- 
lined, is  of  American  origin,  taking  its  rise  in  the  very 
birthday  of  the  new  nation,  and  largely  helped  on  in  its 
career  by  men  foremost  in  the  struggle  for  political  liberty. 
Its  fundamental  doctrines  forbid  its  standing  in  any  other 
than  a  loyal  attitude  toward  a  government  which  cham- 
pions for  the  world  the  rights  of  man.  While  it  would  not 
immodestly  boast,  it  can  rightly  claim  that  its  constituency 
has  borne  an  honorable  part  in  securing  and  perpetuating 
the  Union,  that  it  has  consistently  championed  the  cause 
of  liberty,  and  that  it  greatly  rejoices  that  in  a  land  so 
highly  favored,  it  has  been  able  to  plant  itself  in  proclaim- 
ing to  all  the  fullness  of  the  blessing  of  the  gospel  of  Christ. 


INDICES. 


THE    UNITARIANS. 


Abbot,  Abiel,  189. 

Aconzio,  Jacopo,  128. 

Adam  Pastor,  76,  77. 

Adams,  John,  175. 

Adoptianism,  i. 

Aikenhead,  Thomas,  144. 

Albigenses,  2,  3,  26. 

Alcott,  Louisa  M.,  235. 

Alziati,  Paolo,  61. 

Am.  Unit.  Association,  218. 

Anabaptists,  3,  4,  47,  65,  93,  127. 

Andover  School,  189,  191. 

Anniversary  Week,  216. 

Anthology  Club,  191. 

Antinomians,  3,  47,  127,  177. 

Antioch  College,  220. 

Arianism,    2-5,   62,   67,   72,   91,   122, 

128,  138,  160,  180,  190. 
Arminianism,  176,  177,  181. 
Ashwell  on  Socinus,  72. 

Association,    174;   of  Boston   Minis- 
ters, 178,  212-14;   Am.  Unit.,  318. 

Augsburg  Conferences,  28,  29. 

Augustinowitz,  Paul,  his  bequest,  1 18. 

Autumnal  Convention,  217. 

Bacon,  121,  126. 

Bagshaw  against  Socinians,  130. 

Bancroft,  ."Varon,  186. 

Baptism,  3  ;  Ser%'etus,  44  ;  in  Poland, 
65,  66,  76 ;   in  Transylvania,  66. 

Baptists  in  ICngland,  4,  122,  123,  147. 

Barclay,  Robert,  137. 

Barnard,  Thomas,  181. 

Bathori,  Christopher,  65,   no;   Sigis- 
mund,  113;  Stephen,  83,  84,  no. 

Baxter,  Richard,   129. 

Baxterians,  155. 

Bayle  on  Socinians,  93 ;   Socinus,  66. 


Bellows,  H.  W.,  223,  225,  232,  241. 
Belshani,  Thomas,  159-161,  192. 
Bembo,  cardinal,  on  Ochino,  16. 
Benefit  of  Christ,  n,  13-15. 
Bentley,  William,  182,  183. 
Berry  Street  Conference,  215. 
Berthelier,  opp(jnent  of  Calvin,  42. 
Bethlen  Gabor,  114. 
Beza,  Theodore,  21,  61,  87. 
Biddle,  John,  131-135. 
Birmingham  riot,  158,  159. 
Blackburne,  archdeacon,  149. 
Blandrata,   61,   62,   64,    65,    85,    104, 

107;   hostility  to  David,  110-112. 
Blasphemy,  law  of,  128,  133,  144. 
Bocskai,  Stephen,  114. 
Bohemian  Brethren,  75. 
Bolsec  vs.  Calvin,  53. 
Boston  Synod  (1680),  173. 
Boston  Unitarianism,  187,  190,  194, 
!      199,  202. 
Bostwick  on  independency,  128. 
Bowditch,  Nathaniel,  184. 
Bradford's  "  History,"  170. 
Briant,  Lemuel,  175. 
Brigham,  Charles  IL,  232. 
Bristol  riot,  164. 

Buckminster,  J.,  186;  J.  S.,  187,  190. 
Bull,  George,  on  trinity,  138. 
BuUinger,  51,  54,  55. 
Burke,  Edmund,  159. 
Bury,  Arthur,  139. 
Calvin,  25,  38,  39,  40,  42,  47,  60,  61. 
Calvinism  as  a  power,  47,  58,  60 ;  in 

Transylvania,  97,  98,  108,  115. 
Cambridge  Platform,  173. 
Cappe,  Catherine,  150,  165. 
Caraffa,  cardinal,  17,  79. 


495 


496 


INDICES. 


Carnesecchi,  Pietro,  ii,  i6. 

Carpenter,  Lant,  161-164. 

Channing,  W.  -E.,  190,  193,  195-199, 
200,  212,  219;  W.  H.,  233. 

Charles  II.,  consequences  of  his  resto- 
ration,  173. 

Charles  V.,  6,  16. 

Chauncy,  Charles,   177. 

Chewney,  "Anti-Socinianism,"  130. 

Cheynell  vs.  Chillingworth,  125,  127. 

Chillingworth,  William,  125. 

"Christian  Disciple,"  192;  "Ex- 
aminer," 192,  199,  200. 

Christology  of  Valdes,  12;  of  Me- 
lanchthon,  31  ;  of  Servetus,  23,  t,t„ 
44;  of  Socinus,  70,  72;  of  F.  Da- 
vid, 64,  III;  of  Belsham,  160;  of 
Channing,  190. 

Civil  War  in  U.  S.,  221. 

Clarke,  J.  F.,  227;   Samuel,  142,  146. 

Claude  of  Turin,  2. ' 

Colonna,  Vittoria,  li,  17. 

Commerce,  its  effect  in  Salem,  184. 

Conant,  A.  H.,  223. 

Consociation,  174,  1S9. 

Cossacks  in  Poland,  84,  89. 

Covenant,  Half-way,  172;  covenants 
of  New  England  churches,  170-172. 

Cranmer,  10,  18. 

Cromwell:   Articles,  129,  130. 

Cunningham,  Francis,  201. 

Dall,  C.  H.  A.,  238. 

Davenant,  Charles,  cited,  142. 

David,  Francis,  63-65,  105-112. 

Dedham  case,  194. 

Deistical  Controversy,  146,  148. 

Dewey,  Orville,  203,  241. 

Dissent  in  England,  147 ;  terms  of 
subscription,  148. 

Dissenters'  Chapels  Act,  145,  153. 

Divinity  School  (Harvard),  239. 

Doddridge,  147,  160. 

Edward  VI.,  18. 

Edwards,  John,  142;  Jonathan,  176; 
Thomas  ("  Cangrasna  "),  127, 

Eliot,  W.  G.,  205,  241. 

Elizabeth,  18,  121-123. 

Emerson,  R.  W.,  205-207. 

Emlyn,  Thomas,  143,  175. 

Erasmus,  4,  8,  27. 

Essex  Street  Chapel,  152,  153. 

Familists,  127. 


Farel,  38,  43. 

Felix  of  Urgel,  i. 

Firmin,  Thomas,  133,  135. 

Flaminio,  Marcantonio,  11. 

Fox,  George,  137. 

Free  Religious  Association,  228. 

Freeman,  James,  185,  186. 

Frothingham,  N.  L.,  203. 

Fuller,  Arthur  B.,  224. 

Gannett,  E.  S.,  199,  200,  204. 

Gay,  Ebenezer,  175,  179. 

Gentile,  Valentino,  62. 

German  Rationalism,  201,  209. 

Goniondski,  76. 

Gonzaga,  Giulia,  10,  16. 

Great  Awakening,  170,  176. 

Gribaldo,  Matteo,  61. 

Half-way  Covenant,  172,  173. 

Hartley,  156. 

Harvard  College,  181,  187. 

Hedge,  F.  H.,  229. 

Henchman  legacy,  188,  189. 

Henry  VIII.,  4,  18. 

Henry  of  Valois  in  Poland,  82. 

Heresies,  medieval,  2,  3. 

Hewley  trust,  153. 

Hill,  Thomas,  233. 

Hollis  foundation,  188. 

Howard,  Simeon,  180. 

Humanists,  4. 

Hutchinson,  Ann,  172. 

Huxley  on  Priestley,  154,  158. 

Improved  version  of  New  Testament, 
161,  191. 

Independents  in  England,  124,  126, 
147. 

Inquisition,  9,  12,  17,  40,  49,  56,  59. 

Italian  Reformers,  chap,  i.,  59;  refu- 
gees in  Sw'itzerland,  51,  54,  61. 

Jagello,  royal  house  of,  78-82. 

Japan,  w'ork  in,  239. 

Jesuits  in  Poland,  86,  87 ;  in  Tran- 
sylvania, no. 

Joan  of  Kent,  4. 

John  Casimir,  90. 

John  Sigismund,  63,  104-109. 

Joseph  II.  of  Austria,  117. 

Ket,  Francis,  burned,  123. 

King,  Thomas  Starr,  221. 

King's  Chapel,  185. 

Knapp,  F.  N.,  224. 

Lardner,  Nathaniel,  146,  157. 


INDICES. 


497 


Laski  (a  Lasco),  i8,  75. 
Laud,  arclil)ishop,  124,  126. 
Legate,  Bartholomew,  123. 
Leopoldine  Compact,  116. 
Lewes,  John,  burned,  122. 
Lindsey,  Theophilus,  149-152. 
Locarno,  exiles  of,  54. 
Locke,  John,  142;  Samuel  (president 

of  Harvard  College),  180. 
Lowe,  Charles,  231. 
Lowell,  John,  193. 
Luther,  4,  29,  58. 
Mann,  Horace,  220. 
Maria  Theresa,  100,  116. 
Martineau,  James,  166-168,  247. 
Martinengo,  Celso,  52,  55. 
Mary  Tudor,  12;   her  prisons,  18. 
Materialism  (Priestley's),  157. 
Mather,  Increase,  174;    Cotton,  176. 
May,  Samuel  J.,  204. 
Mayhew,    Thomas,    177;    Jonathan, 

178-180. 
Meadville  Divinity  School,  220. 
Melanchthon,    i,   4,    15,    27,   29,    34, 

38,  44,  49,  51,  53,  55,  106,  107. 
Melius,  Peter,  108. 
Milton,  126,  127,  138. 
Ministers'  Institute,  232. 
Morata,  Olimpia,  11. 
Morse,  Jedediah,  188,  191,  192. 
Murray,  John,  182. 
Myconius,  his  confession,  52. 
"Naked  Gospel"  (Rury),  139. 
Naples  in  1532,  11. 
National  Conference,  225. 
Necessarianism,  156. 
New  England,  antecedents  in  (chap. 

viii.),  170-194. 
New  Unitarianism  (ch.  x.),  221-246. 
Newman,  F.  W.,  167. 
Norton,    Andrews,    207-209;    John, 

doctrine  of  atonement,  172. 
Noyes,  G.  R.,  209. 
Oblivion,  Act  of,  134. 
Ochino,  B.,  10,  16,  20-23,  55>  6'>  77- 
CEcolampadius,  30. 
Ordinance    of    1648   against    heresy, 

•    133- 

Owen,  Jolin,  25,  130. 

Oxnard,  of  Portland,  186. 

Paget,  John,  118. 

Pagitt,  E.,  on  Socinus,  128. 


Pagnini's  Bible,  36, 

Paleario,  Aonio,  12. 

Paleologus,  James,  109. 

Park  Street  Church,  201. 

Parker,  Theodore,  210-214. 

Peabody,  A.  P.,  205,  241;   E.,  204. 

Pearson,  Eliphalet  (professor  in  Har- 
vard College),  187,  188. 

Penn,  William,  137. 

Philpot,  John,  19. 

Pickering,  Timothy,  18 1. 

Pinczow,  Synod  of,  62,  85. 

Poland,  53;   chap,  iv.,  73-96. 

Pole,  cardinal,  12. 

Polygamy,  discussion  of,  22. 

Presbyterian    party,    128,    136;    Dis- 
senters, 147,  152,  165. 

Price,  Richard,  152,  154,  156. 

Priestley,  Joseph,  154-159,  187. 

Prince,  John,  182. 

Prisons,  Queen  Mary's,  19. 

Protestant,  the  name,  28. 

Przypkowski,  S.,  50,  92,  94. 

Puritan,  the  name,  121,  124. 

Putnam,  George,  204,  241. 

Pynchon,  W.,  on  redemption,  172. 

Quakerism,  137. 

Quintana,  28. 

Racovian  Catechism,  70,  88,  95. 

Rakow  (Racovia),  85  ;  College,  88, 

Reformation  in  1575,  58. 

Renata  (Renee)  of  Ferrara,  11,  17. 

Ripley,  George,  208. 

Sabbatarians  in  Transylvania,  1 14. 

Sabunda,  Raymond  de,  26. 
I  Sacraments,  doctrine  of,  14,  29,  106, 
I      205. 

St.  Abraham,  Michael,  1 17. 

Salem,  liberalism  in,  181-184. 

Savoy  Confession.  173. 

Saybrook  Platform,  174. 

Servetus  (chap,  ii.),  6,  59,  61,  72. 

Sherlock,  W.,  on  trinity,  140. 
!  Sherman,  John,  189. 

Simultaneum,  the,  1 1 5. 

Socinian,    the   doctrine,    69-72 ;    the 
]      name,  85. 

Socinians  expelled  from  Poland,  91. 
I  Socinus,  L.  and  F.  (chap,  iii.),  44-72. 
I  South,  Roliert,  140. 

Sparks,  Jared,  196. 
I  Spirit,  Biddle's  doctrine  of  the,  132. 


49« 


IXVICES. 


"  Spirit  of  the  Pilgrims,"  192,  200. 
Stebbins,  Rufus  P.,  220,  241. 
Stephen  Bathori,  80,  84,  no. 
Strangers'  Church,  18,  75. 
Stuart,  Moses,  197. 
Szekely,  Moses,  113. 
Szeklers,  98-101. 
Taylor,  J.  J.,  168. 
Three  nations  of  Transylvania,  98. 
Tillotson  on  Socinians,  95. 
Toleration  Act  (1689),  139. 
Torda,  Diet  of,  63. 
Toulouse,  3,  26. 
Transcenderitalism,  206. 
Transylvania  (chap,  v.),  97-120. 
Tuckerman,  Joseph,  198. 
Tyscowitz,  barbarous  execution  of,  86. 
Unitarian  name,  63,  168,  192,  219. 
Universalism,  iSo,  182,  199. 
Usher,  archbishop,  132. 
Vald^s,  the  brothers,  6;   John,  8-15. 
Vane,  Sir  Henry,  132. 
Venice,  suppression  of  heresy,  49. 
Vergerio,  P.  P.,  52,  55. 


Vermigli,  P.  M.,  10,  17,  18,  21.. 
Vicenza,  society  at,  49. 
Vincent,  Thomas,  137. 
Vittoria  Colonna,  11,  17. 
Waldenses,    2;     in    Calabria,    9;    in 

Poland,  74. 
Walker,  James,  203,  241. 
Wallis,  John,  on  trinity,  139. 
Ware,  H.,  187;   H.,  Jr.,  199,  207. 
Wasson,  D.  A.,  228. 
Watts,  147. 
Weiss,  John,  228. 
Western  Conference,  236. 
Western  Issue,  the,  237. 
Westminster  Assembly,  126. 
Whitby  z's.  Bull,  139. 
Whitefield,   176,  177. 
Wightman,  Edw.,  burned,  123. 
WiUard  (pres.  H.  C),  181,  187. 
Works,  doctrine  of,  15,  46. 
Wyszowaty,  66,  91. 
Zamoyski,  John,  73,  81,  85. 
Zapolya,  John,  103. 
Zwingli,  5. 


THE    UNIVERSALISTS, 


Academies    and    colleges,    485-492 ; 

proselyting    in,    seventy-five    years 

ago,  4^4,  486. 
Acrelius,  Rev.  Israel,  finds  Universal- 

ists  among  the  Moravians,  378. 
"Acta  Historica-Ecclesiastica,"  332. 
Adams,  John  G. ,  D.  D. ,  his  hymn-book 

and  hymn,  478,  479. 
Alabama,  440. 
Albertus  Magnus,  297. 
Allen,   Rev.  Timothy,   Congregation- 

alist,  383. 
Allin,  Thomas,  D.D.,  quotations  from 

his  "  Universalism  Asserted,"  279, 

312. 
Almaric  of  Bena,  297. 
Ambrosius    on    Universalism    in    the 

eighth  century,  294. 
Analiaptists,  308,  336. 
"Ante-Nicene  Fathers  "  quoted,  257, 


259,  261,  262,  264,  265,  267,  269, 
272,  274,  277,  280,  281. 

"Appeal  and  Declaration,"  454. 

Articles  of  Faith  adopted  in  1790, 
414;  in  1794,  429;  in  1803,  431; 
the  first  interpreted  against  Unita- 
rians, 417- 

Athanasius,  280. 

Atonement,  Anselm's  theory  of,  domi- 
nant in  America,  395 ;  Murray's 
preaching  necessitates  the  substitu- 
tion of  Grotius's  theory,  396 ;  Rev. 
Hosea  Ballou's  theory,  435. 

August,  Ernst,  332. 

Augustine  on  early  Universalists, 
284. 

Bacon,  Rev.  Henry,  481. 

Baerensprung,  Siegmund,  332. 

Ballou,  Rev.  Barton,  485. 

Ballou,  Rev.  David,  427. 


INDICES. 


499 


Ballou,  Rev.  Hosea,  427-436  ;  adopts 
Unitarian  sentiments,  429  ;  becomes 
a  Universalist,  427  ;  discussion  witli 
Rev.  Edward  Turner,  444;  with 
editor  of  the  "  Boston  Kaleido- 
scope," 449;  edits  tlie  "  Universal- 
ist Magazine,"  449;  great  fairness 
in  controversy,  455 ;  hymn-books 
and  hymns,  476,  478;  "  Notes  on 
the  Paraljles,"  433;  on  committee 
to  draft  "Articles  of  Relief,"  430; 
ordained,  428  ;  reordained,  430  ;  re- 
fuses to  settle  in  Boston  during  the 
lifetime  of  Mr.  Murray,  454 ;  teaches 
school,  428  ;  theology,  435  ;  "  Trea- 
tise on  Atonement,"  434;  unites 
with  the  Baptist  Church,  427  ;  views 
on  punishment,  434,  446,  450. 

Ballou,  Hosea,  2d,  l).l).,  author  of  the 
' '  Ancient  H istory  of  U ni versalism, " 
280 ;  quotations  from,  266,  280,  283, 
292,  295,  298,  304;  edits  the  "  Uni- 
versalist Magazine,"  453  ;  "  Expos- 
itor," 472;  "Quarterly,"  472; 
hymns  and  hymn-book,  479 ;  on 
the  future-punishment  controversy, 
447  ;  president  of  the  Historical  So- 
ciety, 470. 

Ballou,  Rev.  Maturin,  Baptist,  427. 

Ballou,  Silas,  writes  hymns  and  pub- 
lishes a  hynm-l)Ook,  475. 

Baptist  church  in  Pliiladelphia,  Mr. 
Winchester's  connection  with,  409  ; 
its  excommunicated  members  or- 
ganize the  "  Society  of  Universal 
.Baptists,"  'and  purchase  a  hall, 
410. 

Baptists,  many  become  Universalists 
in  1790,  411. 

Bar  Sudaili,  291. 

Barns,  Rev.  Thomas,  437. 

Barnum,  Hon.  P.  T.,  491. 

Basil,  280. 

Beeclier,  Edward,  D.I).,  author  of 
"  History  of  ( )]iinions  on  the  Script- 
ural Doctrine  of  Retribution,"  283; 
quoted,  284,  285,  286. 

Beghards  and  Lollards,  298. 

Belknap,  Jeremy,  D.D.,  384. 

Belsham,  Rev.  Thomas,  357. 

Benedict's  "  History  of  the  Baptists  " 
quoted,  411. 


Benezet,  .Anthony,  408. 
Bengel,  Ji)liann  Albrecht,  310,  note. 
"  Berlcburgcr  IJibel,"  the,  331. 
Berlin  "  State  and  Literary  Times," 

Berrow,  Rev.  Capel,  352. 

"  Bibliotheca  Sacra"  on  the  influence 
of  John  Murray  on  Calvinism,  396. 

Binney,  Mr.,  Congregationalist,  369. 

Boehm,  Jacob,  314. 

Bohler,  Rev.  Peter,  378. 

Boston,  Mass.,  Mr.  Murray's  minis- 
try in,  405 ;  church  in,  publishes  a 
hymn-book,  475,  476 ;  Sunday- 
school  in,  483. 

"  Boston  Kaleidoscope,"  the,  attacks 
Universalism,  449. 

Bourignon,  Antoinette,  315. 

Bowen,  Henry,  453. 

Brethren  and  Sisters  of  the  Free  Spir- 
it, 299. 

Brethren  of  the  Common  Lot,  299. 

Briggs,  Rev.  Levi,  454. 

British  Museum,  recent  works  on 
Eschatology  in,  370. 

Buchtel,  Hon.  John  R.,  and  Buchtel 
College,  492. 

Burnet,  Dr.  Thomas,  324-328. 

California,  442. 

Calvinism,  Rev.  John  Murray's  influ- 
ence on,  395. 

"  Calvinism  Improved,"  385. 

Campbell,  Rev.  John  McLeod,  359. 

Canada,  443. 

Canton  Theological  School,  490. 

Carey,  Matthew,  Roman  Catholic, 
482. 

Carpenter,  Lant,  LL.D.,  357. 

Case,  Mrs.  L.  J.  B.,  481. 

Cassianus,  Johannes,  288. 

Cate,  Rev.  I.  W.,  469. 

Chambre,  A.  St.  John,  D.D.,  458. 

Channing,  W.  E.,  D.D.,  Unitarian, 
456. 

Chapin,  Edwin  H.,  D.D.,  his  hymn- 
book  and  hymn,  479,  480. 

"  Charter  of  Compact,"  adopted  by 
Universalists,  404. 

Chauncy,  Charles,  D.D.,  382;  his 
writings  in  advocacy  of  Universal- 
ism, 383. 

Cheyne,  Dr.  George,  342. 


500 


INDICES. 


"  Children's  Sunday,"  484. 
"  Christian  Leader,"  the,  472. 
Clarke,  John,  D.D.,  383. 
Clarke,  Rev.  Richard,  379. 
Clarke,  Samuel,  D.D.,  342. 
Clement  of  Alexandria,  259-262. 
Clinton  Liberal  Institute,  487. 
Coffin,  Rev.  Michael,  438. 
Cogan,  Thomas,  RLD.,  357. 
College,  efforts  to  establish,  490. 
Cone,  O.,  D.D.,  on  Theodoret,  290. 
"  Congregationalist,"     the,     Boston, 

369- 

Congregationalists  and  Universalists 
pronounced  one  sect  by  l^ew  Hamp- 
shire courts,  432. 

Congregationalists,  Universalism 

among  the  English,  368 ;  among 
the  American,  382. 

Connecticut,  437. 

Conrad,  John,  331. 

Coppin,  Rev.  Richard,  317. 

Cox,  Rev.  Nicholas,  411. 

Crellius,  Rev.  Samuel,  336. 

Cremer,  R.,  337. 

"  Critical  Review,"  the,  356. 

Crombie,  Alexander,  LL.D.,  359. 

Cuppe,  Pierre,  339. 

D'Aranda,  Peter,  304. 

D'Marsay,  Count,  331  ;  his  commen- 
tary on  the  Apocalypse,  376. 

Dakota,  443. 

Dale,  Rev.  R.  W.,  Congregationalist, 
368. 

Davenant,  Bishop  John,  315. 

Dean,  Dr.  Oliver,  488,  489,  491. 

Dean,  Rev.  Paul,  399 ;  Restoration- 
ist  leader,  454. 

Dean  Academy,  488. 

De  Benneville,  George,  M.D.,  375. 

Dedication  of  children,  484. 

Denk,  Hans,  309. 

"  Dialogues  on  the  General  Restitu- 
tion of  the  Creation,"  322. 

Didymus  the  blind,  279. 

Diodorus,  282. 

Dippel,  Christian,  331. 

Ditelmair,  testifies  to  spread  of  Uni- 
versalism, 329. 

Doederlin  on  early  Universalists, 
285. 

Domitian,  292. 


Dorner,  on  Denk  and  Hetzer,  309 ; 
on  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia,  285. 

Douglass,  Rev.  Niel,  341. 

Duche,  Rev.  Jacob,  380. 

Dunkers,  the,  331,  378,  441,  482. 

Earbury,  William,  317. 

"  Eastern  Association,"  437. 

Eberhard,  John  Augustine,  336. 

Eckhart,  Henry,  mystical  pantheist, 
299. 

Eckley,  Rev.  Joseph,  Congregation- 
^  alist,  383. 

Edgart^on,  Sarah  C,  481, 

Education,  484-492. 

Edwards,  Rev.  Thomas,  his  "  Gan- 
grcena,"  316. 

England,  Universalism  in,  342. 

English  Congregationalists,  368. 

Episcopalians,  Universalists  among 
the,  379;  the  American  change  the 
seventeenth  of  the  Thirty-nine  Ar- 
ticles, eliminate  words  from  the 
Apostles'  Creed,  and  object  to  the 
Nicene  and  the  Athanasian  creeds, 
380. 

Erasmus,  publishes  the  works  of  Ori- 
gen,  312. 

Erigena,  John  Scotus,  295. 

Erskine,  Tho!nas,  358. 

Estlin,  John  Prior,  LL.D.,  357. 

Eusebius,  278. 

Evans,  Rev.  David,  411. 

"  Everlasting  Gospel,  The,"  by  Sieg- 
volck  (George  Klein  Nicolai),  330, 
333,  376,  408;  by  Schaeffer,  331, 
376 ;   attacked  by  Rev.   N.    Pomp, 

377- 
Facundus,  291. 
Farewell,  Rev.  William,  439. 
Ferris,    Rev.    Walter,    committee    to 

draft   a  "  Form   of   Fellowship    in 

Faith  and  Practice,"  430. 
Ferriss,  Rev.  Edwin,  438. 
Fessenden,  Rev.  Thomas,  386. 
Fifth   General   Council,  the,  did   not 

condemn    Origen's     Universalism, 

292  ;   doubtful  if  it  was  ecumenical, 

293- 
First- Day  or  Sunday-school  Society, 

482. 
Flagg,  Rev.  Joshua,  439. 
Fletcher,  Julia  A.,  481. 


INDICES. 


501 


Florida,  440. 

Foster,  Rev.  Dan,  386. 

Foster,  Mr.,  edits  the  "  Universalist 
Magazine,"  453. 

Foster,  Rev.  J.  H.,  Ph.D.,  on  "  Tlie 
I'lschatulogy  of  tlie  New  Enghind 
Divines,"  397. 

Foster,  Rev.  Joel,  Congregationaiist, 
446. 

Foster,  Rev.  John,  Baptist,  his  moral 
argument  against  endless  punisli- 
ment,  363. 

Fox,  Rev.  William  J.,  a  successor  to 
Winchester,  354. 

France,  Universalism  in,  339,  341. 

Frederick  the  Great  on  complaints 
against  the  preaching  of  Universal- 
ism, 338. 

"  Free  Universal  Magazine,"  471. 

Free-will,  Origen  on  its  being  no  bar 
to  universal  salvation,  275. 

French  Protestants,  340. 

Georgia,  440. 

(ierhard,  Ludwig,  331. 

German  hymn-book,  479. 

German  Rationalism,  attitude  toward, 
467. 

Germany,  Universalism  in,  298,  308, 
309,  328,  330,  zzz,  336. 

Giesler,  on  early  Universalists,  284; 
on  Origen's  Universalism  not  con- 
demned by  a  General  Council,  292. 

Gloucester,  Mass.,  390;  Articles  of 
Association,  399  ;  builds  a  meeting- 
house, 400 ;  Charter  of  Compact, 
404;  church  organized,  416;  law- 
suit with  first  parish,  401  ;  impor- 
tance of  decision  of  suit  to  all  other 
sects,  403;  Mr.  Murray's  labors 
in,  399 ;   Sunday-school  in,  483. 

Goddard,  Thomas  A.,  and  wife,  488, 
491. 

Goddard  Seminary,  4S8. 

"  (iolden   Rose,  The,"  331,  376. 

Gordon,  Rev.  William,  Congregation- 
aiist, 383. 

Gorton,  Samuel,  372. 

"  Gospel  Visitant,"  the,  446. 

Green  Mountain  Perkins  Academy, 
488. 

Gregory  Nazianzen,  280. 

Gregory  of  Nyssa,  280. 


Gregory  Thaumaturgus,  276. 

Griffiths,  Dr.  Ralph,  355. 

Groot,  Gerhard,  299. 

Cjruncr,  John  Frederick,  336. 

Hahn,  Michael,  336. 

Ilalcyonists,  the,  442. 

Halifax,  N.  S.,  443. 

"  Harleian  Miscellany,  The,"  346. 

Hartley,  Dr.  Samuel,  348. 

Haug,  John  Henry,  331. 

Hazard,  Ebenezer,  384. 

Iletzen,  Ludwig,  309. 

"  Higher  Criticism,  The,"  467. 

Hilary,  280. 

Ilochman,  Ernest  Cluisloph,  331. 

Holland,  Universalism  in,  336. 

"  Holy  Cub,  The,"  Universalism  dis- 
cussed in,  351. 

Hopkins,  Rev.  Samuel,  Congrega- 
tionaiist, 383. 

Huber,  Marie,  338. 

Hudson,  Rev.  Charles,  454. 

Huntington,  Rev.  Dr.  Joseph,  his 
"  Calvinism  Improved,"  385. 

Hymn-books  and  hynms,  473-481. 

Iilaho,  443. 

Illinois,  441  ;  protest  of  the  conven- 
tion, 465. 

Indiana,  441. 

Iowa,  441. 

Japan  Mission,  469. 

Jerome,  265,  280. 

John  of  Goch,  301. 

Jonas,  Justus,  309. 

[ones,  Rev.  Thomas,  416. 

Kansas,  442. 

Kentucky,  441. 

Lane,  Oliver  Wellington,  committee 
on  Boston  hymn-book,  476 ;  starts 
the  first  Sunday-school  in   Boston, 

483- 

Law,  Rev.  William,  349. 

Lead,  Jane,  320. 

Lindsey,  Rev.  Theophilus,  357. 

Livermore,  Mrs.  Mary  A.,  her  liymn, 
480. 

Lollards,  the,  298. 

Lombard,  Benjamin,  and  Lond)ard 
University,  491. 

Luther,  Martin,  on  eternal  punish- 
ment, 306. 

Mack,  Alexander,  331. 


502 


INDICES. 


Macrina,  282. 

Maine,  436. 

Mann,  Rev.  Jacob,  386. 

Marcellus,  279. 

Marshall,  Christopher,  408. 

Massachusetts,  437. 

Massachusetts  Association  of  Uni- 
versal Restorationists,  455. 

Mather,  Dr.  Cotton,  on  Samuel  Gor- 
ton, 372  ;   on  Sir  Henry  Vane,  374. 

Mather,  Rev.  Samuel,  Congregation- 
alist,  383. 

Matthews,  William,  352. 

Maurice,     Rev.    Frederick    Denison, 

359- 
Maximus  the  Confessor,  293. 
Mayhew,  Rev.  Jonathan,  384. 
McDonald,  Rev.  George,  367. 
McLean,  Rev.  Duncan,  411. 
Mead,  Rev.  Samuel,  386. 
"  Men  of  Understanding,"  303. 
Merlau,  Johanna  Eleonora  von,  328, 

377- 
Methodius,  276. 
Michigan,  441. 

Miner,  A.  A.,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  458, 470. 
Minnesota,  442. 
Mississippi,  442. 
Missouri,  441. 

Mitchell,  Rev.  Edward,  399. 
Montana,  443. 
"  Monthly  Review,"  the,  its  attitude 

toward  Universalism,  355. 
Moor,  Rev.  Clark  R.,  458. 
Moravians,  the,  378. 
More,    Sir    Thomas,    his    "  Utopia," 

313- 

Mosheim,  John  Lawrence  von,  D.D., 
his  tribute  to  Origen,  263  ;  on  Chris- 
tian mysteries,  276;  on  "  Men  of 
Understanding,"  304;  on  John  Pi- 
cus,  404 ;  his  defense  of  the  doctrine 
of  eternal  punishment,  329 ;  replies 
to  his  defense,  329,  330,  334. 

Murray,  Rev.  John,  388-407;  adopts 
an  aggressive  policy,  392  ;  arrives  in 
America,  388,  389 ;  at  the  Associa- 
tion in  1 785,  404  ;  at  the  Convention 
in  1790,  411;  in  1793,  1795,  1804. 
399;  brings  suit  against  the  first 
parish  in  Gloucester,  402  ;  centen- 
nial observance  of  his  first  sermon 


in  America,  468 ;  chaplain  of  the 
Rhode  Island  brigade,  400;  decis- 
ion of  his  suit  against  the  first  par- 
ish, 403  ;  education  and  mental  abil- 
ities, 406 ;  his  death,  406 ;  his  the- 
ology, 392  ;  hymn-writer,  473  ;  in- 
fluence on  Calvinism,  395  ;  influence 
on  the  spread  of  Universalism,  397  ; 
jealous  of  Universalism  that  had 
not  a  Rellyan  basis,  423 ;  justifies 
his  non-avowal  of  Universalism, 
391;  ministry  in  Gloucester,  400; 
ministry  in  Boston,  405  ;  opposed 
to  water  baptism,  416;  ordination, 
405  ;  personal  relations  with  Win- 
chester, 422  ;  place  in  the  esteem  of 
the  Universalist  Church,  406  ;  Rel- 
lyan Universalist,  392  ;  republishes 
the  Relly  hymn-book,  473 ;  Rev. 
Dr.  Stiles's  attack  on  his  character, 
406 ;  standing  alone  in  his  Rellyan- 
ism,  398 ;  visits  England,  405. 

Murray  Centenary  Fund,  468. 

Mursinna,  Samuel,  336. 

Neander,  Augustus,  D.D.,'  on  the 
Universalism  of  Marcellus,  279;  of 
Gregory  Nyssen,  281  ;  of  Theodore 
of  Mopsuestia,  285 ;  of  Johannes 
Cassianus,  288 ;  of  Bar  Sudali,  291  ; 
on  Universalist  theological  schools 
in  the  fourth  century,  284;  on  Ori- 
gen's  not  being  condemned  by  a 
General  Council,  292.    ' 

Nebraska,  442. 

Nestorian  Church,  Universalism  in  its 
sacramental  liturgy,  287. 

New  Brunswick,  443. 

New  England  Convention.  See  Uni- 
versalist Convention. 

New  Hampshire,  437  ;  courts  rule  that 
Universalists  and  Congregational- 
ists  are  the  same,  432  ;  legislature 
declaresUniversalists  a  distinct  sect, 

432- 
New  Jersey,  439. 
Newton,  Sir  Isaac,  342. 
Newton,  Bp.  Thomas,  350. 
New  York,  438. 
"  Nicene  and   Post-Nicene   Fathers" 

quoted,    265,    266,    269,    2S0,    281, 

2S2,  2S9. 
Nichols,  Amasa,  485. 


INDICES. 


503 


Nichols  Acatlemy,  485. 

Nicolai,  George  Klein,  330,  376. 

Ni)rth  Dakota,  443. 

"  Notes  on  tiie  Paraljles,"  433. 

Nova  Scotia,  443. 

Ohio,  440. 

Old   Testament    doctrine   of   rewards 

and  punishments,  344. 
Olshausen's  tribute  to  Universalism, 

371- 

Ontario,  443. 

"  Open  Gates  of  the  Heart,"  315. 

Ordination,  Vermont  law  and  rule  of, 
430 ;  New  England  Convention  rule 
in  regard  to,  433. 

Oregon,  442. 

Origen,  263-276;  Erasmus  publishes 
his  works,  312;  foundation  of  his 
philosophy,  263 ;  his  Universalism 
not  condemned  by  a  General  Coun- 
cil, 292 ;  Jerome's  opposition  to, 
265 ;  misrepresented  by  Rufinus, 
265,  266  ;  reply  to  Celsus,  271-274  ; 
teaches  that  free-will  is  no  barrier 
to  universal  salvation,  275. 

Oxford,  Mass.  See  Universalist  As- 
sociation. 

Pamphilus,  277. 

Parker,  Rev.  Noah,  398. 

Parr,  Dr.  Samuel,  347. 

Penn,  William,  (Quaker,  intimacy  of, 
with  German  Universalists,  377. 

I'ennsylvania,  376,  440. 

Perin,  George  L.,  D.D.*  469. 

Peters,  Rev.  Samuel,  Episcopalian, 
381. 

Petersen,  John  \\  illiam,  300,  320,  322, 
328,  330. 

Petitpierre,  Ferdinand  Oliver,  338. 

Philadelphia  Haptist  Association  and 
Rev.  IClhanan  Winchester,  409; 
spread  of  Universalism  in,  41 1. 

Philadeljihia  Convention.  .See  Uni- 
versalist Convention. 

"  Philadelphia  Magazine,"  354. 

Philadelphia  Universalists  organize  as 
"  Universal  Baptists,"  410. 

Philadelphia  Universalist  .Sunday- 
school,  483. 

Picus,  John,  304. 

Plan  of  this  history,  255. 

Plumptre,   E.  II.,   D.D.,  on  Univer- 


salism condemned  in  the  Forty-two 
Articles,  a.d.  1552,  312. 

Polity  of  the  Universalist  Church, 
461-468. 

Pomp,  Rev.  N.,  writes  against  Uni- 
versalism, 376. 

Pope,  Alexander,  345. 

Pope  Gregory  II.  gives  instructions 
against  Universalism,  294. 

Postell,  William,  313. 

Potter,  Thomas,  389;  Memorial 
Church  for,  439. 

Presbyterian  Alarm,  386. 

Priestley,  Dr.  Joseph,  419. 

Protestant  theory  of  retribution  as  ab- 
sent from  this  life  and  reserved  for 
the  future,  456. 

Punishment,  attitude  of  Universalists 
in  regard  to,   458 ;  extreme  views 

of.  457- 

Purves,  Rev.  James,  341. 

Quebec,  Province  of,  443. 

Ramsay,  Andrew  Michael,  343. 

Raymond  of  P" ranee,  296. 

Relly,  Rev.  James,  348  ;  his  theology, 
392. 

Relly,  James  and  John,  their  hymn- 
book,  473. 

Restorationists,  444-456 ;  secession 
of,  a  great  mistake,  455 ;  their 
policy,  453. 

Reuz  [Rights  or  Wright],  Rev.  Mat- 
thew, 379. 

Rewards  and  punishments,  Old  Testa- 
ment doctrine  of,  344. 

Rliode  Island,  437. 

Rice,  Rev.  Clarence  E.,  469. 

Rich,  Rev.  Caleb,  423 ;  ordination, 
425;  organizes  a  "General  Soci- 
ety," 425;  religious  experiences, 
424 ;  reordained,  430 ;  theology  of, 
426,  446. 

Richards,  Rev.  George,  a  hymn-writer, 
476 ;  committee  on  Boston  hymn- 
book,  476;  on  Mr.  Murray's  atti- 
tude in  convention,  399 ;  prepares 
and  publishes  a  hymn-book,  476. 

Richardson,  Rev.  .Samuel,  317. 

Rights.      See  Reuz,  Rev.  Matthew. 

Ritler,  Hcinrich,  on  the  Universalism 
of  .Maximus,  294. 

Roach,  R.,  343. 


504 


INDICES. 


Rogers,  Rev.  George,  442  ;  his  hymn- 
book,  479. 

Rufinus,  his  translation  of  Origen's 
"  De  Principiis,"  265  ;  his  misrep- 
resentations, 265,  269. 

Rush,  Dr.  Benjamin,  arranges  the  Ar- 
ticles and  Plan  of  the  Philadelphia 
Convention,  413;  assists  in  organ- 
ization of  Sunday-school  Society, 
482 ;  becomes  an  Arminian  and 
confesses  obligations  to  Rev.  Mr. 
Fletcher,  412;  becomes  a  Univer- 
salist  and  urges  Mr.  Winchester  to 
go  on  a  mission  to  England,  413; 
correspondence  with  Mr.  Winches- 
ter, 413;  eulogizes  Rev.  John  Wes- 
ley, 413  ;  on  Mr.  Winchester's  later 
preaching,  420. 

Ruysbroek,  John,  299. 

Safford,  O.  F.,  D.D.,  458. 

Sarjent,  Rev.  Abel,  446 ;  edits  the 
"  Free  Universal  Magazine,"  471  ; 
puts  forth  a  Unitarian-Universalist 
Creed,  417. 

Sawyer,  Mrs.  Caroline  M.,  her  hymn, 
480. 

Sawyer,  Thomas  J.,  D.D.,  committee 
on  views  of  Universalists  in  regard 
to  punishment,  458 ;  on  organiza- 
tion, 463-465  ;  principal  of  Clinton 
Liberal  Institute  and  teacher  in 
theology,  489  ;  quotations  from  his 
historical  papers,  301,  308,  314, 
320,  322,  332-336 ;  secretary  of 
Universalist  Historical  Society, 
470 ;  urges  the  importance  of  col- 
leges and  theological  schools,  489, 
490. 

Say,  Thomas,  408. 

Scarlett,  Nathaniel,  354. 

Schaefifer,  David,  330,  376. 

Schaff,  Philip,  D":D.,  LL.D.,  his 
writings  referred  to  or  quoted,  293, 
294,  note,  296,  308,  309. 

SchafT-Herzog  Encyclopcedia,  referred 
to  or  quoted,  304,  310,  note,  344, 
358. 

Schlitte's  review  of  Mosheim,  335. 

Schouler,  Miss  M.  C,  469. 

Schuetz,  Christopher,  331,  376. 

Scotland,  Universalism  in,  341. 

Seagrave,  Rev.  Artis,  410,  411;  his 
convention  hymn,  475. 


Sears,  Professor  Barnas,  on  Univer- 
salism in  Germany,  336. 

Serarius,  Peter,  320. 

Sibylline  oracles,  the,  256. 

Sieglvock,  Paul.  See  Nicolai,  George 
Klein. 

Smalley,  Rev.  John,  Congregational- 
ist,  396. 

Smith,  Sir  James  Edward,  361,  481. 

Smith,  Rev.  Stephen  R.,  his  "  His- 
torical Sketches,"  439,  note;  his 
labors  in  founding  the  Clinton  Lib- 
eral Institute,  487. 

Smith,  T.  Southwood,  M.D.,  341. 

Smith,  Dr.  William,  380. 

Smollett,  Dr.  Tobias,  356. 

"  Society  of  Universal  Baptists,"  410; 
merged  in  "  The  First  Independent 
Church  of  Christ,"  417. 

Solomon,  Bishop  of  Bassorah,  297. 

South  Carolina,  440. 

Sprague,  Wm.  B.,  D.D.,  on  Rev. 
Joseph  Huntington,  D.D.,  and  his 
Universalism,  385. 

St.  Lawrence  University,  492. 

Stacy,  Rev.  Nathaniel,  438. 

State  Conventions,  funds  of,  468. 

Steinhart,  Gottfried,  336. 

Stilling,  Jung,  336. 

Stonehouse,  Sir  George,  350,  356; 
his  distinction  between  salvation 
and  restoration,  352. 

Streeter,  Rev.  Barzillai,  454. 

Sunday-schools,  482,  483. 

Switzerland,  Universalism  in,  338. 

Taft,  Rev.  Mr.,  of  Langdon,  N.  H., 
386. 

Tauler,  John,  300. 

Taylor,  Rev.  John,  Congregationalist 
missionary,  438. 

Tennessee,  442. 

Texas,  442. 

Thacher,  Rev.  Peter,  Congregation- 
alist, 383. 

Thayer,  Thomas  B.,  D.D.,  on  the 
Sibylline  oracles,  258,  note ;  on 
Theodoret,  291. 

Theodore  of  Mopsuestia,  285. 

Theodoret,  Bishop  of  Cyrus,  288. 

Theological  schools  in  the  fourth  cent- 
ury, 283  ;  attempts  to  establish,  in 
America,  489 ;  Dr.  Sawyer's,  at 
Clinton,   489;  at   Canton,    N.   Y., 


INDICES. 


505 


490 ;  in  Japan,  469 ;  Ryder  Divin- 
ity School,  491  ;  Tufts  Divinity 
School,  491. 

Theophilus,  Bishop  of  Antioch,  258. 

"  Theosophic  Heart  Devotions,"  332. 

Tiioni,  Rev.  David,  361. 

'I'honias,  Rev.  Abel  C,  his  "  Century 
of  Universalism,"  408;  hymn  and 
tune  book,  478. 

'I'hroop,  Hon.  A.  G.,  and  Throop 
Polytechnic  Institute,  488. 

Titus,  Bishop  of  liostra,  280. 

Tonilinson,  Charles  W.,  D.D.,  357, 
note. 

Townshend,     Rev.   Chauncey     Hare, 

367- 

Tufts,  Charles,  489,  491. 

Tufts  College,  491. 

Turner,  Rev.  Edward,  associated  with 
Rev.  H.  Ballou  in  preparing  hymn- 
books,  476,  477  ;  discusses  question 
of  future  jjunishment  with  Rev.  H. 
Ballou,  444 ;   Restorationist  leader, 

454- 

Tyler,  Rev.  John,  Episcopalian,  a 
Rellyan  author,  381. 

L'eberweg  on  the  Universalism  of 
Maximus,  294. 

Ullman,    Dr.  C.,   on  the  theology  of 
John  of  Goch,  301  ;  quotations  from  | 
his  "  Reformers  before  the  Refor- 
mation," 299-303.  I 

I'nitarian  opposition  to  Universalism,  ! 

449.. 456-     ...  .   I 

Unitarian  societies  in  England,  Uni- 
versalism of,  354. 

Unitarian     Universalists,    357,  417, 

4.29-. 

I'nitarian-Universalist  Creed,  417. 

L'niversalism  among  the  Congrega- 
tionalists,  368,  382-386;  the  1 
Dunkers,  331,  378,  441  ;  the  E]iis- 
copalians,  379-382;  the  Millenari- 
ans,  331  ;  the  Moravians,  378;  the  j 
Unitarians,  354,  357;  attacked  by 
the  "  Boston  Kaleidoscope,"  449; 
condemned  in  the  Forty-two  Articles 
of  1552,  311;  condemnation  ig- 
nored in  Thirty-nine  Articles  of 
1562,  312  ;  author's  "  History  of,  in 
America,"  referred  to,  408,  433, 
455>  47';  defined,  255;  in  the  ii. 
century,    256;   iii.,    263;  iv.,   277- 


283;  v.,  285-291;  vi.  and  vii., 
293;  viii.,  294;  ix.,  295;  xiii., 
297;  xiv.,  298,  301;  XV.,  303; 
xvi.,  306-310,  312;  xvii.,  315-328; 
xviii.,  328-357;  xix.,  357-371;  in 
America,  372-493 ;  in  England, 
294,  297-303,  306,  308,  310,  328- 
336;  P'rance,  339;  Germany,  294, 
297-303,  306,  308,  310,  328-336; 
Holland,  320,  336;  Scotland,  341  ; 
^Switzerland,  338;  United  States 
and  British  provinces,  372-493  ;  in 
the  "Critical  Review,"  356;  the 
"Monthly  Review,"  355;  its  at- 
titude toward  slavery,  416;  its 
spread  alarms  the  Presbyterians, 
386 ;  laws  condemnatory  of,  in 
I'^ngland  in  1552,  311;  not  regarded 
as  heretical  in  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land since  1562,  312;  of  Rev.  Ho- 
sea  Ballou,  434';  Charles  Chauncy, 
D.D.,  382;  Dr.  Alexander  Crom- 
bie,  359 ;  Dr.  George  De  Benne- 
ville,  375;  Thomas  Erskine,  358; 
Samuel  Gorton,  372  ;  David  Ilart- 
ley,  348;  John  Henderson,  353; 
Joseph  Huntington,  D.D.,  385; 
Rev.  William  Law,  350;  William 
Matthews,  352 ;  Rev.  George 
McDonald,  367 ;  Rev.  John  Mur- 
ray) 392;  Bishop  Newton,  350; 
Rev.  Caleb  Rich,  426 ;  Sir  George 
Stonehouse,  350;  Rev.  David 
Thom,  361 ;  Rev.  Chauncey  Hare 
Townshend,  367;  Rev.  John  Ty- 
ler, 381;  Sir  Henry  Vane,  374; 
Rev.  Elhanan  Winchester,  421  ; 
Olshausen's  tribute  to,  371  ;  pen- 
alty for  holding,  in  seventeenth  cent- 
ury, 316;  Pomp,  Rev.  N.,  on  the 
spread  of,  in  Pennsylvania,  377. 

Universalist  ^Vssociation  organized  at 
Oxford,  Mass.,  in  1785,  404;  object 
of,  403  ;  not  long  in  existence,  405  ; 
recommends  form  of  organization 
for  societies,  404. 

Universalist  Convention  organized  at 
Philadelphia  in  1790,411;  adopts 
Articles  of  Faith  and  Plan  of 
Church  Government,  414  ;  holds  no 
session  after  1809,  419;  publishes 
a  hymn-book,  475 ;  receives  and 
grants  requests  for  organizing  con- 


5o6 


INDICES. 


ventions  in  New  England  and  at 
the  West,  418;  recommends  the 
establishing  of  schools,  415  ;  recom- 
mendation against  slavery,  416; 
Rellyans  in  the  minority  in,  and 
generosity  of  the  majority  toward 
them,  416. 

Universalist  Convention  organized  in 
1793  as  the  "  New  England  Con- 
vention," 428 ;  adopts  Articles  of 
Faith  and  Plan  of  Philadelphia  Con- 
vention, 429;  adopts  "The  Wfti- 
chester  Profession  of  Belief,"  431  ; 
becomes  "  The  General  Convention 
of  the  New  England  States  and 
others,"  433;  becomes  "  The  Gen- 
eral Convention  of  Universalists  of 
the  United  States,"  462;  attempts 
to  perfect  uniform  organization, 
461-468;  definite  and  effective  pol- 
ity adopted,  468 ;  its  deliverance  on 
the  Bible  as  containing  a  special 
revelation,  466  ;  its  foreign-mission- 
ary work,  469 ;  its  funds,  468. 

Universalist  Convention  organized  at 
Morganstovvn,  Pa.,  in  1793,  419. 

"  Universalist  Expositor,"  472. 

Universalist  Historical  Society,  470. 

Universalist  hymns  and  hymn-books, 
473-481. 

Universalist  literature,  471. 

"  Universalist  Magazine,"  449,  453, 
472. 

Universalist  ministers  of  Boston  and 
vicinity  on  the  question  of  punish- 
ment for  sin,  458. 

"  Universalist  Miscellany,"  354. 

Universalist  mission  to  Japan,  465. 

Universalist  Publishing  House,  472. 

"  Universalist  Quarterly,"  472;  re- 
ferred to  or  quoted,  258,  note,  290, 
295,  297,  note,  306-308,  313,  315, 

3.24- 
Universalist  State  Conventions,  436- 

443- 

Universalist  Sunday-schools,  483. 

Vane,  Sir  Henry,  373. 

Vermont,  437 ;  laws  and  usage  in  re- 
lation to  ordination,  430. 

Victorinus,  280. 

Vidler,  Rev.  William,  354. 

Viscountess  of  Conway,  the,  322,  377. 


Voss,  Jacob,  334. 

Walker,  Dr.  William  J.,  491. 

"  Walnut  Hill  Evangelical  Semi- 
nary," 489. 

Warburton,  Bp.  William,  344. 

Washington,  443. 

Washington,  D.C.,  443. 

Wesley,  Rev.  John,  Methodist,  351. 

Wessel,  John,  300. 

W^est  Virginia,  442. 

Westbrook  Seminary  and  Female  Col- 
lege, 487. 

Western  Association  organized  and 
visited,  439. 

Whiston,  Rev.  W'illiam,  t,t,t„  342. 

White,  Rev.  Jeremy,  318. 

White,  Bp.  William,  482. 

Whitefield,  Rev.  George,  his  warning 
to  Rev.  John  Wesley,  378. 

Whiting,  Rev.  Samuel,  386. 

Whittemore,  Thomas,  D.D.,  447. 

William  of  Hildesheim,  304. 

W'inchester,  Rev.  Elhanan,  353,  408- 
413  ;  correspondence  witli  Dr.  Rush, 
413  ;  his  abilities,  420;  hymn-book, 
474;  theology,  421;  influence  of 
Universalist  writings  on,  409;  pas- 
tor of  Baptist  church  in  Philadel- 
phia, 409 ;  ministry  in  England, 
353  ;  preaches  at  ordination  of  Rev. 
HoseaBallou,428  ;  returns  to  Amer- 
ica, 419;  sickness  and  death,  420; 
writings,  353,  420. 

Winchester,  Rev.  Moses,  411. 

"  Winchester  Profession  of  Belief," 
tradition  as  to  cause  of  its  adoption, 
431  ;  acceptable  to  all,  432. 

Winstanley,  Gerard,  316. 

W'isconsin,  441. 

Woelner,  T,'i,'t,. 

Wolf,  Rev.  George,  441. 

Woman's  Centenary  Association,  469. 

Women's  State  Missionary  Associa- 
tions, 470. 

Wood,  Rev.  Jacob,  447,  448,  454. 

Worrall,  Rev.  William,  341. 

Worth,  Rev.  William,  411. 

Wright,  Rev.  Richard,  357. 

Yancey,   Rev.  Robert,    Episcopalian, 

379- 
Young,  Rev.  Joal),  428,  438. 
Young  People's  Christian  Union,  492. 


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Vol.  VIII.- 


Baptists,     . 

Congiegationalists, 

Lutlierans, 

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Moravian, 


Vol.    IX.      Roman  Catholics, 


Vol.     X. 


Vol.    XI. 


Vol.   XII.- 


The  Religious  Forces  of  the  United  States,  H.  K.  Carroll,  LL.D., 
Editcir  of  The  Independent,  Supt.  Church  Statistics,  U.  S.  Census,  etc. 
Rtv.  A.   H.  NtwMAN,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
Professor  of  Church  History,  McMaster 
University  of  Toronto,  Ont. 

Rev.  WiLLisTON  Walker,   Ph.D., 

Professor  of  Modern  Church  History, 
Theological  Seminary,  Hartford.  Conn, 

Rev.  H.  E.  Jacobs,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

Professor  of  Systematic  Theology  in  the 
Ev.  Lutheran  Seminary,  Phila.,  Pa. 

Rev.  J.  M.  Buckley,   D.D.,  LL.D., 

Editor  of  the  New  York  Christian 
Advocate. 

Rev.  Robert  Ellis  Thompson,  D.D., 
Philadelphia.  Pa. 

Rev.  C.  C.  Tiffany,  D.D., 
New  York. 

Reformed  Churcli,  Dutcii,  Rev.  E.  T.  Corwin,  D.D., 

Rector  Hertzog  Hall,  New  Brunswick,  N.J. 

Reformed  Church,  German, Rev.  J.  H.  Dubbs,  D.D., 

Professor  of  History,  Franklyn  and 
Marshall  College,  Lancaster,  Pa. 

Rev.  J.  T.  Hamilton,  D.D., 

Professor  of  Church  History, Theological 
Seminary,  Bethlehem,  Pa. 

Rev.  T.  O'Gorman,  D.D., 

Professor  of  Church  History,  Catholic 
.University,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Rev.  J.  H.  Allen,  D.D., 

Late  Lecturer  on  Ecclesiastical  History, 
Harvard  University,  Cambridge,  Mass. 

Rev.  Richard  Eddy,  D.D., 

Providence,  R.  L 

Rev.  Gross  Alexander,  D.D., 
Professor    CJreck    and    N.   T.    Exegesis, 
Nashville,  Tenn. 

Rev.  Thomas  C.  Johnson,  D.D., 
Professor     Ecclesiastical     History     and 
Polity,  Hampden-Sidney,  Va. 

Riv.  James  B.  Scouller,  D.D., 

Newville,  Pa. 
Rev.   R.   V.  Foster,  D.D., 

Professor  Biblical  Exegesis,  Cumberland 
University,  Lebanon,  Tenn. 

Rev.   R.   B.  Tyler,  D.D.,  New  York. 

iProf.  A.  C.    Thomas,  M.A., 

Haverford  College,  Haverford,  Pa. 

Ir.    H.  Thomas,  M.D.,   Baltimore,  Md. 

Rkv.   D.   Beroer,  D.D.,  Dayton,  Ohio. 

Rev.  S.  p.  Sprenc, 
Editor  Evangelical    Messenger,  Cleve- 
land, Ohio. 

Rev.  Samuel  Macauley  Jackson, 

New  York. 


Unitarians, 

Universalists,    . 
M.  E.  Church,  So., 

Presbyterians,  So.,  . 

United  Presbyterians, 
Cumb.  Presbyterians, 

Disciples,    . 

Friends, 

United  Brethren,     . 
Ev.  Association, 

Bibliography,    . 


Dat^  Due 


~^^^fS\ 


BX9830 .A42 

Historical  sketch  of  the  Unitarian 

Princeton  Theological  Semmary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  00002  6155 


'.  "  rr,  :i.:k;.'''-'^y!','-'S5[ 


